3-Point Perspective with Maria
Our January community corner features a three-point perspective interview with a multidisciplinary artist and PR professional.
Welcome to our January community corner. This is the second installment of the 3-point perspective series, where we highlight a valuable member of our Cares community. In this month's feature, we focus on Maria Pianelli Blair. You may recognize her name as the creator of the image for last blog post. Maria is a highly creative individual who has stood out to me since my high school days. It has been wonderful to learn from her over the years since high school, and it feels special that I can now share her wisdom with my community.
But first, general community updates:
Katya still Cares
One of my main goals for 2024 is to continue growing this newsletter and expand its reach beyond my small community. Thank you for all your assistance with this! When friends share my Substack with others, our community grows and the knowledge sharing expands, creating a wonderful cycle.
The most shared piece I have created is The TearBrew Cafe. This was surprising but very fun. Thanks for the encouragement to write fiction. It can be difficult to determine when to take a break when you are fully engrossed in your imagination, but I will try to pause and publish something in the upcoming weeks.
Furthermore, I am currently working on the Terra universe. My goal for Q1 is to sell enough books to order more author's copies and donate them before summer. When I envision 2024, I imagine it as a fantastic year where I can donate even more books. If anyone is interested in gifting a children's book, please let me know / order one!
I updated the mental health tools I created last year. Talktoterra.com is for younger people or any people who appreciate color and turtles. My dad helped make this website so fun! Reframemythoughts.com is the original website for adults. It is a little more dry and serious.
For fun, I’m continuing to try to draw every day and adding dance classes to my yoga class routine mix.
Our Cares
Book Club
We finished reading "The Candy House" by Jennifer Egan, which inspired my last post.
Afterward, we immersed ourselves in "The Days of Abandonment," complementing our reading with pasta, a nod to Elena, as we engaged in discussions about the book.
Now, we are reading "The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store" by James McBride.
Reply if you want to discuss any of the above!
Joys
We reflected on the joys of 2023 together. I am now opening up this survey to anyone else who would like to contribute to it. What brought you Joy in 2023?
Planning 2024
January is all about 2024 and we are discussing our projections and tracking for the new year.
It helps to stay focused. To help guide our 3-points for 2024, we asked the fairies for assistance. We each chose three Fairy Cards to determine three themes to pay special attention to.
My Fairy Cards: Quiet Time, Beauty, and Romantic Partner. I was thrilled with the first one and my mom was thrilled with the second two 😂.
I’m going to take all the quiet time I can take to write and create
If you would like your 3 Fairy cards read, just reply to this email, and I can video you and show them to you!
Maria Cares
Maria’s 3 fairy cards for 2024 were Awakening your True Self, Visualization and the Magic of Nature.
Maria appreciates a "Dear Maria, Count Me In" joke, making her my kind of person.
2023 was a special year for Maria as she married the love of her life. Maria and Peter experienced a lot of joy together during that year, including thoroughly enjoying listening to the "60 songs that explain the 90s" podcast. This podcast sparked deep discussions and laughter during their long car rides. Another highlight in 2023 for the newlyweds was watching the TV show Pokerface on Peacock, especially the weekly releases.
Looking ahead to 2024, they plan to continue sharing joy together. They particularly enjoy queuing up a series of music videos on their TV and watching them until the early hours of the morning - "there's nothing like it".
Maria is an Account Director at LaunchSquad, a PR firm where she has worked for over 10 years!
Maria is also a Multidisciplinary Artist and a writer. You can follow her work @sunset_sews on Instagram.
Maria’s 3-point perspective
For January’s 3-point perspective series, I had a fascinating conversation with Maria, a creative individual who combines her passion for art with her PR expertise, offering a unique perspective on life. We discussed Maria's beliefs on the ways we can absorb, collage, and contribute to the world around us. I am thrilled to share her insights with you in her own words.
These are 3 points to know about Maria to get to know her & her creations:
Point 1 - The Philosophy of Absorbing Life
Katya: "Maria, ever since I met you at school, you have consistently been consuming and discussing literature, music, and art. This is intentional. You frequently emphasize the importance of absorbing such knowledge. Could you please elaborate on that?"
Maria: "One of the things that I've adopted as a life philosophy, and try to hold myself accountable to, is absorbing as much as I can. I believe that we have a responsibility to learn as much as we can from those who came before us.
I try to read everything, from classic literature and non-fiction to folklore. Since I was a kid, I’ve immersed myself in music. I love all decades and all genres. I try to find new artists and appreciate the different ways they tell stories.
Growing up in New York City, some of the greatest museums in the world were right in my backyard. I love spending hours exploring museums and special exhibitions. I’m not one to meander around. I’m intentional about which exhibition I am going to, and try to read everything, absorbing as much as I can. I try to do the same when I travel, being intentional about where I visit, what I read, and engaging with different cultures through food, art, and history.”
Katya: "So, you take in as much as you can in every subject, for the sake of learning."
Maria: "Yes. Though sometimes I’m better at it than others. Like movies: I tend to rewatch a lot of my favorites. So I'm trying to slowly expand my horizons there, too. Across the board, I want to soak in as much culture as possible.
And then, I ask myself: ‘I’m spending a lot of my life absorbing, but what am I putting out there into the world?'"
Point 2 - The Art of Collaging: Bringing Life Together
Katya: "What do you put out there into the world? On @sunset_sews , I see you work on a lot of collages. Could you tell us more about it?"
Maria: “Yes, I love collaging.
To me, it’s a way to physically engage with the past. To wrap my hands, quite literally, around images and concepts that pre-date me. To play with them, break them apart, and then put them back together, with my own unique spin on them. It’s a profound way of connecting with people I’ll never know, but long to understand, and insert myself into their stories.
I work a lot with mid-century ephemera, whether used postcards; old magazines; or forgotten family photos. Most of them are from sometime between 1900 and 1970. I like creating something new with the old. I love reusing old materials and giving them new life. There’s also something exhilarating about using these objects to learn about the past, using my art to bring them into the present, and shattering my own assumptions along the way.”
Katya: “What kind of assumptions?”
Maria: “I’m obsessed with the concept of legacy. I think about it a lot when I work with found photos, these forgotten images uncovered at thrift stores or yard sales. I’ve spent a lot of time curating my collection of vintage photos, and there’s something beautiful about trying to understand these anonymous people and imagine what their lives were like.
That’s where the assumption breaking comes in. I have so many assumptions about what it would be like to be a woman in another decade. Take the early 1900s, for example. I’m used to seeing these stoic images of prim and proper women. But then, sometimes you find photos of them laughing or being goofy. It fleshes them out as full people rather than vague stereotypes.
I have a series of photos of this one woman, I think her name is Esther, from the 1950s. After she graduated college, she took a solo road trip throughout the desert and Pacific Northwest. There’s all these pictures of her in her car, exploring different places. And her diligent handwriting on the back of each, trying to preserve what she sees. It’s badass, not what I would have imagined for a woman at the time.
I was born in the early 90s and always heard the narrative that women in the 50s were beholden to their homes and families. There’s that “Stepford Wives” trope. But then I see pictures of this nameless lady flipping the narrative on its head. It makes me think of the gender roles put upon women mid-century and beyond. I’m questioning what we have historically celebrated as feminine and the outliers we see as ‘difficult.’ I wonder how this woman’s friends and neighbors perceived her -- was she considered odd? Adventurous? Did they envy her? Did they worry about her?
I learned a lot just from studying her photos, and have used my work to celebrate her femininity and adventurous spirit.
Images like these challenge my own notions and I hope to challenge other people’s, too.”
Katya: "How do you challenge people’s perception through your art?”
Maria: "I want to challenge them to see beyond the conventional narrative. To tie together things seen and unseen. The people in these photos are long dead. And, likely, their families are too -- that’s why their images are in $1 boxes in the thrift store. They’re a mystery to me. And through their mysteries, I come to terms that one day, I’ll be a mystery, too.
So, it’s two-fold. How do we see beyond the singular image of a person in front of us and understand the depths of who they are and what they left behind? And what do we become ourselves, when we’re just photos in a box?
Maybe that second part, that self reckoning, is why I long to give them a second life. And why I want to share them out, and invite others to imagine who these strangers might be.
For example, the photo I used for your Memory article. It was an ad from the 60s, depicting the quintessential mid century family. Black and white, with perfect hair and matching glasses. But there's probably more to them than what means the eye -- color bursting behind the scenes. That's why I replaced their faces with scenes of nature, to show there’s more depth there than this sterile looking All-American family. It's challenging us to think differently about what lies beyond the surface, and plays with the idea of how future generations may perceive our remnants.
So it goes back to this idea of legacy. Those people in my found photos -- they could have gone forgotten in the thrift store bins, akin to unmarked graves. But here I am, decades later, engaging with them, reimagining them, and sharing them with whoever is watching. Time, in that way, is just a concept.”
Point 3 - PR and Storytelling: Adding to the Conversation and Starting Your Own.
Katya: "You care about continuing other people's legacy. Do you also care about others doing the same? Do you think it's important for art and beyond art?”
Maria: “Yeah, and people do that anyway. Writers continuously quote each other, right? There’s references to other works abound, if you look hard enough. Musicians sample music. I like to think of my art as communicating with people from another time too, just in a different medium.
I appreciate the timelessness of a conversation that keeps continuing, even after death. If someone finds my photo many years from now, do something crazy with it. Extend my lifetime as a person! Make it relevant to whatever year you are in! I learn so much from people that I will never meet through their music, their writing, and their contributions to society. This is my way of giving back, extending the conversation.”
Katya: "This is relevant to what you do for a living.”
Maria: "Yeah, this belief system carries seamlessly into my professional life.
I have been in the PR industry for 10 years, helping companies tell their stories, be seen, and be understood by the world.
In PR, storytelling is crucial, much like in my art. You need to dig deep, soak in everything you can about a brand’s past, present, and aspirations. I need to grasp the current perception of the brand, in tandem with the bigger picture they offer society. This process resembles how I approach art. Absorbing, and then adding to the narrative with my own spin.
Whenever I work with a new client, I go down the rabbit hole of learning as much as I can about them and those that came before them. Their industry, and the unique problems they’re trying to solve. Then, I go into a cocoon of sorts, letting it marinate. It’s similar to when I get my hands on a new found photo and I study the context before reimagining it.
When I emerge from my PR cocoon, it’s time to collaborate with my clients and create. Together, we create a narrative that is both aspirational and authentic. We build upon public understanding, and work to continue the conversation in a meaningful way.
It doesn’t matter what industry they’re in -- retail, transportation, enterprise tech. The process is similar: take in their current situation, their desired legacy, and then help frame them in the right way to get them there. Let the right amount of color, of magic, creep in so the world sees them differently.”
Maria: “With PR, there’s also an element of being bold and innovative. Just as I experiment with different materials in art, in PR, we explore various mediums and channels. Sometimes, when the right platform doesn't exist, we create our own. It’s important to be fearless in storytelling in order to push the needle forward.
Working with clients, especially startups, has inspired me to embrace this boldness. Seeing their vulnerability and willingness to think differently pushes me to do the same in my art and PR work. It becomes a circle of inspiration and courage."
Katya: “How has it inspired you?”
Maria: "I learned that if a lane doesn’t exist, you need to build it yourself. For example, if there’s not a perfect outlet to pitch a client to, maybe you create your own channel. A Substack. A podcast. Maybe there’s not the perfect conference for a client’s target audience. So make your own. Break through the door, right? Or, create your own door. Sometimes we create the space our clients need.
Katya: “Have you been bold outside of your job?”
Maria: “Yes, I tried to apply this concept to my personal life. I graduated college when I was 20, over a year early. It was a strange, disorienting situation to be in.
It was hard relating to my friends who were still in college. But it felt odd being in the workforce, too. I was significantly younger than my coworkers and felt like a child among adults. I couldn’t even legally drink, which created its own set of problems when so much work culture and networking is centered around happy hours (at least it was in 2014, pre-pandemic). I felt caught between two worlds, and my confidence took a hit.
So, I wrote about it. Writing is how I often made sense of complex things. At first, it was a blog intended just for myself, to navigate this inbetween space between post-grad and real world.
However, something unexpected happened. Acquaintances, friends, and even people from Facebook who were going through similar experiences reached out to me, wanting to tell their own stories. Over the course of two years, I created a network of 20 or so contributors and we navigated this awkward phase together. The blog became a cool resource for others in this ambiguous space, offering them a place to learn from and contribute ideas. What we were doing was unique and, in a world where there are now full beats and publications around work culture, it felt ahead of its time.
We couldn't find an existing conversation, so we started our own conversation.”
I was curious and stumbled upon Maria's blog. It's great! Such a throw back! I also graduated college early and it made me feel all the feelings. What's even more exciting is that I found out our high school friends have contributed to it. This blog, along with my conversation with Maria, has inspired me to initiate conversations and motivate my friends to keep them going. Currently, I achieve this by creating monthly surveys to gather insights from my friends and conducting interviews with them for a more comprehensive understanding.
As we conclude this community corner, I reflect on the path that Maria Pianelli Blair has paved. Like all of my favorite people, Maria has demonstrated a combination of creativity, insight, and a dedication to leaving a lasting legacy.
Thank you, Maria, for being a source of inspiration. Your influence motivates us to absorb, reinvent, and contribute in our own distinct ways!
Your presence serves as a constant reminder to me that our journey is not solely about achieving milestones (of which you have accomplished many), but also about the depth of our experiences, the connections we form, and the legacy we create and carry forward.
I wish for you and all of our readers a 2024 filled with creativity, connections, and the celebration of our individual and collective stories.
Caring readers, thank you for reading this newsletter. If you enjoyed this type of post, please reply and let me know! I am here for all feedback. Additionally, if you're interested in being featured or would like to connect with Maria for her PR expertise or to purchase her art, feel free to reach out!
With motivation, love, and care,
Katya