INFINITE BEINGS!

The holiday season is a-buzz. Even the hold-out Trader Joe’s has officially traded REM and Paula Abdul for the sleigh bell infinity loop 😅. Some get a little cozier with this twinkling mood-swing. Others grind their teeth and brace themselves for the barrage. Truthfully, I respect whatever you feel and need at this time. I genuinely wish upon the stars, comets, asteroids and exoplanets for more peace in this dizzying world. I count prayers and blessings on my 10 fingers to the power of ♾.

Personally I’m finding ways to reconcile nostalgia and childhood comforts with critically clarified visions for the future (this video offers a great example). Like many others, I approach you with charms and shining fruits- for your trees, hoops, mantles, altars, dashboards and bookshelves. As I answer requests to make my conceptual and/or massively physical artwork more acquirable, I offer you sincerity, originality, novelty (in it’s highest form), and, PURE MAGIC.

I often struggle to justify putting more THINGS into this world. So I take the endeavor very seriously and proceed with consideration and care. The objects I share spring from years of research, hours of questioning, visioning, tweaking and pining. Their prices hardly reflect their value to me, or my actual measure of labor. I say this, not to take myself too seriously, but to recognize how overwhelming it can be have so many marketable options before you and how humbling it is to constantly put yourself out there.

And with that, the delicate hungry monster for whom I forage daily- MY FIRST ORIGINAL DECK OF MAGIC CARDS, my Kickstarter campaign pre-sale:

COUNTING TO INFINITY: STELLE SCOPA DECK OF CARDS

A hand illustrated deck of playing/ divination cards, inspired by Italian Scopa & Tarot cards, charmed by celestial + terrestrial iconography.

🔮 We need your love and support 🔮

Stelle Scopa is a deck of cards I created between Boston, MA, Nashville, TN and Venice Italy over the past year. The deck can be used to play traditional card games, such as its namesake “Scopa” which translates to “”Broom” or “Two Sweep” in Italian. It can also be used for reading meaning, like a modern Tarot deck. Please watch the project video to learn more about the layers of meaning related to stone collecting, mysticism, tactile prayer systems, queerness, ancestral exploration, the sea floor and the cosmos.

Just in case you’re new or rusty with Kickstarter, it’s an all-or-nothing funding platform, specially for creative projects. It’s become quite the corner for innovative card production and has made possible a wave of 21st century relevant and diverse decks- such as Slow Holler, one of the first queer, identity expansive decks- it was a game-changer. Think of my campaign as more of a pre-sale than a fundraiser. At the same time, every small pledge (even $1, $7 or $25!) not only counts toward my goal but also boosts my project’s visibility to backers within the platform and those searching for cards outside of it.

AND Y’ALL. I continue to be real with you. The campaign is right on track, inching forward with the timeline, but I had hoped to be further along by this point, given the hours I spend sharing it, even creating tutorials on insta for how to navigate Kickstarter Add-ons!

If cards aren’t your thing, I’d SO appreciate you forwarding this on to someone you think it will resonate with. But ALSO NOTE- there are tons of cool objects and ADD-ONS besides the cards. The platforms is actually pretty flexible with how you configure your Pledge, so you can choose from one of the Tier Bundles I offer (pictured below) or just Pledge a custom amount and then select individual “ADD-ON” objects from the next screen, like an itemized shopping cart.

And remember, if you’re spent at this moment, the transaction won’t actually go through until late January! And you can always update your pledge up until then.

The images above are available as single or full sets of postcard or risograph posters. They feature every card in the deck, which is comprised of SIX suits! See below for *some of the pledge tiers featured in the full campaign. You can find the full illustrated list of them at the bottom of my project description on Kickstarter.

A FEW EXAMPLES OF STELLE SCOPA PLEDGE TIERS

A FEW OF MY FAVORITE ADD-ONS (choose from the menu following your pledge tier)

SPECIAL HOLIDAY GIFTS IDEAS

STAR + SEA BALL

There are still plenty of SEA and STAR BALLS left in my store. I recently updated their prices to SLIDING SCALE and added a special DOULE DRIBBLE deal for both balls!

Can you imagine a more exciting gem to put under the hoop this season? You know there’s a wonderful weirdo in your life that needs one.

Two ballers who bought them reached out to me this week- one gifted the STAR BALL to their niece for her bday and said “I think this is the coolest gift I’ve ever given a family member.” Another person wrote to me saying his wife was so stressed about finding an original, creative gift for her son and grandchildren that he gave her the ball early to ease her worries. They wrote me a magical response saying how “astonished by it’s beauty” they were and how excited to pass it down to their family line! These responses are heartwarming. I’m so glad people can see the worlds of magic and meaning these basketballs hold with them.

To see them in action, check out these ridiculous videos I made:

A GIFT FROM HEAVEN / AIR 2 STAR BALL / LUCKY STAR

MY BALLS come with tons of goodies including signed, editioned court stickers, zines and the classic Net Works PDF. And if you’re not in the market for a ball, the Senda/ Sedna zine that pairs with STAR BALL can be purchased on their own.

13% of sales from the STAR BALL & Senda/ Sedna zines will be donated to a rad Inuit organization called Inhabit Books, through Winter Solstice- 12/21.

Senda/Sedna expands upon the ball’s concepts via 2 essays written by myself and Abigail Smithson- about Senda Berenson (founder of women’s bball) and Sedna 90377 (my favorite Trans-Neptunian Object). As Senda thought basketball was more than a game, STAR BALL is more than a ball!

OTHER STORE FAVORITES!

P.S. I recently increased my Patreon followers store discounts for the holiday season. Besides discounts, supporters get all kinds of goodies including creative writing, glimpses into my research, global travel tips, studio process, access to private video artworks and lectures, artwork giveaways, seasonal card readings.

Here is an image from the Gemini Full Moon - a cross-fired infinity room, a weightless reflecting pool, the uncanny AURIC TWINNING - between this blue devil and my magic double Vin Caponigro (a frequent collaborator!). Together (below) we shine BLUE like the hottest of Stars that hover between the heart and throat. We take our astral thrones at Hauswitch, in the spirit cabinet of Twelve Month Aura.

I’ve been captured in a cloud of loud violet but never have I shared such a blueprint with another subject of auric capture! It’s fitting for the Gemini Moon, while also defiant and resilient amidst prescriptions of conflict and competition irritated by a backpedaling planet Mars- on a wave of mutilation, in a sign of vast communication.

Radical Friendship is the remedy to toxic individualism and INFINITE GODDETC is my answer “Is there a God?” We don’t shout over one another, we harmonize and amplify to the tune of Sirens 🧜. As above, So below. The suit of Wells calls us in- the venusian belly of the High Priestess churns acidic honey spells. Missing Witches are not long lost.

Thanks so much for following along and being interested in what I’m up to. You can always unsubscribe or let me know if you want to opt out of my newsletters.

With love under the stars,

🌀 Maria