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Interviewed by Paul Dale Roberts, Sacramento Press Journalist

Question: Before we really get into this interview, please tell me something personal about yourself. Your family life, where you were born and raised. Hobbies and recreational activities you are involved in besides your artistic photography.

Answer: First and foremost, I am the mother of a lovely six year old and I have to admit she is often times the subject of my personal photography. But I am a woman of many labels; I suppose my greatest desire is to be a renaissance woman. I want to do it all and experience it all! But there isn’t just enough time in life. Aside from photography, I have other artistic endeavors such as poetry and drawing. Possibly one of my favorite hobbies is learning languages. I really enjoy exploring the similarities and differences between them and of course speaking it! Speaking a new language is like solving a puzzle—it is so personally gratifying.

Question: How many languages can you speak?

Answer: Well obviously, I speak English and I am also a native Spanish speaker. I took four years of French in high school but I have to admit a little rusty. I started learning Italian in June and I really love it! So officially, I speak two but I like to think I speak four!

Question: How did you get into artistic photography? What type of art do you create?

Answer: This is a really difficult question because it wasn’t something that happened suddenly but it was a gradual evolution. I have to say that I am fascinated by people and language. I like to incorporate these two elements into my fine art photography as much as I can. And although photography is my main artistic endeavor, I also like to draw and paint.

Question: What is it that you paint? Now you have me really curious.

Answer: I like to paint words and shapes. Whenever I paint, I have to incorporate words because they are such an important aspect of our lives. It amazes me that these things we call letters are really only shapes that symbolize a certain sound which in turn is transformed into a meaning in our minds. It’s so fascinating! This is why I always include words in my paintings and symbolic imagery. There is always something to tell…

Question: What inspired you to get into this field?

Answer: Photography has been an interest for me for a very long time. My love began when I was in elementary school, when my parents noticed my love for the camera bought me my first point and shoot when I was in sixth grade. My photography has been developing ever since. In high school, I was highly influenced by the work of Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston. I knew then that I wanted to get into photography as my career, so I went to art school in San Francisco.

Question: What are some of the places you love to photograph in Sacramento?

Answer: I really like railroad yards and abandoned buildings. Though really, I just photograph whatever inspires me at any given moment. I should mention I love the tile at the State Capitol—what a great checkered pattern!

Question: What do you feel is the greatest achievement you have done with your work?

Answer: I think the greatest achievement I have done with my work is meeting other incredibly talented individuals in Sacramento through my photography. Sacramento is filled with so many amazing artists and I am constantly inspired by them and this city! I also have to admit that selling my first fine art piece was an extremely satisfying moment in my artistic career.

Question: Does your artistic photography have a message or meaning to it?

Answer: Oh yes, there is meaning! It really depends which series of photographs you are looking at. I have been working on a series of photographing graffiti for over five years. I think graffiti is the culmination of my two great loves: imagery and language. I am fascinated by the things that people say when they believe that they have anonymity. This further lead me to photographing bathrooms which is a place people really let loose with their thoughts and beliefs.

Another series I am working on is greatly inspired by the works of Edward Weston. It began with creating self-portraits of myself, but all small sections of my body. I called this series “My Landscape”, it was a series I began only for myself because I wanted to explore my physical terrain from different points of view and celebrate myself. It is a macro photography series where I wanted to explore the truth of myself. But as this project has evolved, I wanted to share my discoveries with others. I discovered that any exploration yields a multitude of interpretations to different people and now I want to explore other bodies to discover further truths. I just love how lines and shapes can create abstract images and how each image yields a story of its own!

Question: Please tell us something about your portrait photography?

Answer: I really feel privileged that when someone asks me to take their portrait. I know that portraits are so important in our lives because they mark special moments in our lives. This brings to mind one of my favorite quotes of Heracleitos, "No one steps into the same river, for what occurs in the next instant is never the same as the first." This is what photography is to me, it is the ability to capture a singular moment that has never occurred and will never occur exactly the same again. This is the singular most important reason why I love portrait photography.

Question: If people want to see your art, where can they find it? Do you have a website?

Answer: Yes, I have a website: www.marianamoscoso.com for anyone reading my interview should come pay me a visit! I also have a link to my blog if you are interested in my life behind the camera.

Question: Hey, off-the-record you mentioned you are traveling overseas. Where are you going? Is this a vacation or something else?

Answer: Oh, I am so excited! I am first going to Nicaragua which is where my mother is from. I am going to visit my family there for the holidays and then I will be going to Europe. I will be going to Amsterdam first and then I will be in Italy. Europe is pleasure and work.

Question: How can people contact you?

Answer: The best way to get a hold of me is through my website or my email moscoso.mariana@gmail.com

Question: You mentioned to me something about your love of art history. Can you elaborate?

Art history, oh art history! To say I love art is an understatement. I think that learning about art is absolutely exhilarating. My favorite epoch in art history has to be the art of fin de siècle (late 1800s) until the 1960s. With this said, I have gone back to school because I want to get my art history degree and possibly get into art curating.

Question: If someone has a request for some kind of artistic work, are you able to accommodate them?

Answer: Yes, I am! All someone needs to do is ask.

Question: Fun question….if you had 6 dinner guests, 3 historical and 3 fictional, who would they be?

Wow this is really hard and possibly one of the most eclectic groups of people. Three historical figures I would love to have dinner with are Diego Veláquez, a Spanish Baroque painter, Frida Kahlo, a Mexican painter of early 20th century, and Karl Marx, a Prussian philosopher…oh and I would have to have Friedrich Nietzsche and Niccolò Machiavelli. Do you notice a pattern? I really like philosophy. Sorry, I guess I am not very good with coming up with fictional characters…maybe Belle from Beauty and the Beast because she is smart and brave.

Question: Can I ask you another off-the-wall question? Did you nod ‘yes’? Cool, what is your favorite song?

You love hard questions! My favorite song is completely dependent on my mood but if I narrow it down to two, I would have to say “Mariposa en Havana” by Si*Se and “Wonderwall” remake of Ryan Adams. Ryan Adams really captures the mood of the song in a way that I feel really fits the lyrics.

Question: What are your favorite TV shows, movies, books?

Answer: I don’t watch TV. I don’t agree with it though I really do like movies especially foreign and indie films. I’m on a total Almodóvar and Fellini kick right now. As for books, I have so many that I love but I am going to be a girl right now and say that my favorite book is Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. I am a sucker for romance.

Question: Thank you for this fantastic interview. Do you have any words of wisdom for your readers?

Thank you so much for this interview! I’ve had a good time. My words of wisdom would be: Never stop dreaming because life would be nothing without imagination.

Paul Dale Roberts, Sacramento Press Journalist
Email: Pauld5606@comcast.net
916 203 7503
www.jazmaonline.com
www.hpiparanormal.net