Mariel behind "MARALOVE"

  • “How I Extend MARALOVE Into My Life”

    by Mariel Méndez
    My art is not only what I paint. It’s the way I live.   I don’t leave it on the canvas. I carry it with me.   It shows in how I dress, in the piece...

  • From “No” to Pop-Up: My Journey to Nordstrom

    by Mariel Méndez
    Sometimes dreams don’t begin when someone finally tells you “yes.” Sometimes they begin the day someone tells you “no.”   A few years ago, I receiv...

  • “When Space Becomes Narrative”

    by Mariel Méndez
    MARALOVE x Paradisaea   There are collaborations that are simply visual. And there are others that become narrative.   When JPR introduced MARALOVE...

  • “LIBERATION (2019–2020)”

    by Mariel Méndez
    The Courage to Let Go   “LIBERATION” emerged as an exploration of emotional release — not as reaction, but as conscious transformation.   Developed...

  • “80% of Problems Aren’t Problems — They’re a Lack of Structure”

    by Mariel Méndez
    When I heard Martha Debayle say that 80% of problems are solved with discipline, she wasn’t dismissing emotional struggles or suggesting that every...

  • “When Challenges Are Also Blessings.”

    by Mariel Méndez
    There are seasons when I look inward again and remember something essential: I have been profoundly blessed.   Not only in the soft, luminous, cele...

  • “Art as a Silent Companion in Everyday Life”

    by Mariel Méndez
    Art does not always arrive as an event. More often, it appears as a small, almost imperceptible detail — and it stays.   An image resting on a shel...

  • “It Wasn’t Growth. It Was Choice.”

    by Mariel Méndez
    Notes from a year of creating with intention at MARALOVE   A year of silence, decisions, and beauty without hurry.   If I had to sum up 2025 in a s...

  • “What I Found When I Stopped Running After My Dreams”

    by Mariel Méndez
    When Dreams Start to Feel Like a Prison   A couple of days ago, I came across a video by the French artist Garance Doré, one of my favorite illustr...

  • “How I Charge for My Art Without Feeling Guilty”

    by Mariel Méndez
    Talking about money in the world of art has always been uncomfortable. Not because art lacks value… but because, for so long, we were taught that c...

  • “A Magical Brunch with Marlè Magazine in Italy"

    by Mariel Méndez
     Illustration by MARALOVE   There are collaborations that feel like celebrations, and my recent partnership with Marlè Magazine in Italy was exactl...

  • “How I Balance My Creative Side with the Business Side in MARALOVE”

    by Mariel Méndez
    Living between two worlds has never been easy. The creative and the entrepreneurial often feel like opposites: one flows, the other structures. One...