Jennifer Maravillas

Overview

With Filipino and European roots, and with freckles from head to toe, Jennifer Maravillas feels as if she’s on a detective-like quest to understand as many different perspectives as possible. Her roots as an artist, meanwhile, go back to her training in ballet as a child. She sees her art as a kind of ballet performed on paper using a marker.

She rarely restricts herself to just a marker, though. Watercolour, spray paint and various other media are used in her illustrations. As a side project, she has made a map of Brooklyn out of garbage, and in future plans to try and map as much of the world as she can. On top of painting, her passions are anthropology and sociology.

Training

Jennifer did an undergraduate degree is in Graphic Design at the University of Louisville and a graduate degree is in Mass Communication at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Approach

The techniques Jennifer uses are constantly changing, and her style often comes as a result of the medium she’s exploring at a given time. By and large she’s a mixed media artist, always trying new materials and combinations of them – typically they include watercolour markers, ink, spray paint, pencil, cut out paper, block printing, and Photoshop. Sometimes she allows a composition to evolve without knowing what the end result might be like, other times she has a clear idea in her head of what she wants.

Jennifer is fascinated by the digital process. She scans in every doodle and texture she draws or paints, keeping them for reference or for use as layers in new pieces.

Style

Jennifer uses vibrant colour combinations as she builds up maps, cityscapes and scenery from hundreds of smaller handmade elements. Some of her influences include Werner Herzog, Mary Blair, Guy Debord, and Buckminster Fuller.

Client List

• Apple
• Ford Foundation
• Teaching Tolerance: Southern Poverty Law Center
• Hachette Book Group
• Harper's BAZAAR Japan
• Harvard Business Review
• Harvard Business Review Press
• On Point magazine
• Hotel Indigo
• Orlando Magazine
• Waitrose
• Goethe Institute
• Jamie Magazine
• Hoppy Three Day Monk beer
• Winsor Newton
• Transport for London
• Nowhere Magazine
• Spirituality and Health magazine
• Bold Italic
• Tidal Magazine
• Conde Nast Traveler India