Meet Mariah Fox Hausman

Today we’re excited to be connecting with Mariah Fox Hausman again. If you haven’t already, we suggest you check out our prior conversation with them here.

Mariah Fox, we are so thrilled to be connecting again and can’t wait to hear about all the amazing things you have been up to. Before we jump into all of that, some of our readers might have missed our prior interview, so can you take a moment to reintroduce yourself?
Hi, I am Mariah. I’m an artist educator with a specialization in publication design that includes illustration, graphic design, writing and editing. I have been designing, creating and contributing to book projects since I began my career as a young artist. My personal art consultation business helps authors and other creatives see their book concepts go from from ideation to reality. I have an MFA in Studio Art from the University of Miami, where I explored mixed media visual narratives about artists, archetypes and culture. My graduate school experience laid the groundwork for me as a college professor in media arts, and empowered my own artistic practice.

A huge inspiration that has fueled me throughout life and work as an artist has been music. When I was younger I spent a lot of time in Jamaica and this led me to discover Bob Marley, whose messages and beliefs have been really influential for me. I am honored to have had the opportunity to work with his talented, extended family over the course of my career on many creative projects. Over the years, we have travelled, produced books, apparel, event graphics, and so much more… all the while feeding our souls with the best music! Working with the Marley family and estate is an important part of me as an artist and as a human being. Our most recent major collaboration is a book called “Redemption” (Quirk Books); it includes illustrations and a unique selection of Bob’s spoken thoughts, that reveal some of the purpose, message and concept beneath his songs and lyrics. It was exciting this past year to see the Marley film finally be released. It’s been a long time coming, and I think they did an excellent job creating a snapshot view into his life in an authentic, emotional way.

I am currently serving as the Department Chair of Media Arts & Technology at New Mexico Highlands University. My program emphasizes and facilitates service-driven, meaningful work that contributes to culture and society. This is very rewarding, but sometimes very difficult, hard work. My students have helped to renovate historic sites in our state, creating accessible museum exhibits, interactive installations, and sustainable designs intended to educate and inform. We enjoy partnering with cultural institutions. and our relationships with the great media work produced by students have helped create an employment pipeline and an ethos of giving back to our communities. With the global shifts that are happening around us, especially in grant funding—we will be focusing on more ways to maintain our important departmental mission and work.

Alright, so our main goal today is to give our audience an update on what you have been up to since our last conversation. We’d love to hear how things are going and what you are most looking forward to or excited about these days.
My most recent large scale endeavor is a colorful, 28 foot mural that I helped design and produce last fall outside our school building at Highlands University. I was able to win a grant award and bring two guest street artists, Al Díaz and Izia Lindsay, to help me lead students through executing this big project. These artists possess diverse professional careers creating large scale public art displays among other art forms. Díaz is a notable figure in New York art culture with significant international acclaim as the one-time graffiti partner and close friend of globally popular Neo-expressionist painter, Jean-Michel Basquiat. Diaz’ knowledge and experience is rooted in his five-decade career, including earliest beginnings at age 12 as a recognized “first generation graffiti artist.” Lindsay, hailing from Trinidad and Tobago, received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Miami, is a professional illustrator and graphic artist and has completed numerous public mural projects. He is currently an assistant professor at Augustana University.

To accompany this creative output, I designed a special topics course, “History of Graffiti,” which was a big success. Lectures, discussions, readings, films, visual examples, and guest speakers served as course material. Assignments and experiences included hands on lettering instruction, the collaborative mural, class discussion, personal reflections, and research on graffiti and artist from the movement. The work completed on my book, NY City of Kings: A History of Graffiti provided me with an excellent archive of authentic, unusual and interesting historical material to share with students and community.

The mural design itself aims to touch on local community, and environmental concepts. Having experienced the recent wildfire crisis in the nearby mountains, we chose to depict an optimistic scene with ample water, flora and fauna, as well as some historical references to pay tribute to Las Vegas, New Mexico’s key presence in the American Southwest. Diaz’ hallmark urban lettering style, “WE AWAIT A NEW TIME,” is featured centrally.

This project took eight months for us to plan, and about 10 days to execute. The project didn’t go perfectly, but it certainly went very well. There were a few late nights painting while mosquitos swarmed our heads and we tried to meet a timeline goal, and some rain that put a stop to work. But I cherished other tranquil moments at sundown while hummingbirds buzzed through the sky as it changed slowly, and. gloriously from day to night, and even the hot New Mexico sun as we led volunteers to build out each plane of color.

I have spent a considerable time in recent years doing project management, and I am proud of the results. There is great joy in helping facilitate large plans and dreams with others, and being able to step back at the end and see a real big accomplishment to prove that efforts equal results. The key point for me, is that big things can be done so incredibly well when you create a good team with a strategy, and follow the vision. I am so grateful to Al Díaz and Izia Lindsay for their support and partnership helping me create this mural project, which I get to enjoy each day as the seasons change and I go into my school building!

We also want to give folks a chance to get to know you a bit better so we’ve prepared a fun lightning round of questions. Ready?

Favorite Movie: Jerry Maguire

Favorite Book: The Outsiders, S.E. Hinton

Favorite Band or Artist: Bob Marley

Sweet or Savory: Both!

Mountains or Beach: Both, always!

Favorite Sport (to watch): Track

Favorite Sport (to play): Volleyball

Did you play sports growing up (if so which ones): Volleyball, track

As a kid, what did you want to be when you grew up: An artist

French Fries or Onion Rings: Fries

Favorite Cartoon growing up: Looney Tunes

Favorite Childhood movie: Wizard of Oz

Favorite Breakfast Food: Eggs with a variety of accompaniments

Was there a moment in your career that you can tell us about that illustrates or demonstrates the kind of person you are, your approach, ethos, etc.
More than once I’ve made a career change that was very frightening because the move put me in a less secure position than I had been in before. But strangely, I have been driven to make these decisions without much difficulty, and sideline my fear and worry. This may have been cavalier, even stupid sometimes. The weird thing is, I am inherently a very cautious person so it’s strange that I’ve been able to do this several times in different situations, throughout my life. These transitions were not without some inevitable growing pains or uncomfortable times, but I’ve realized that the shifts actually led me to grow into better places in my life and become a wiser human being, so the risks were worth taking.

Website: https://mariahfox.com/

Instagram: @mfoxfoto

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mariahfoxhausman/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mariahfoxhausman

Image Credits
Images © Mariah Fox Hausman
Redemption book cover © Quirk Books, Cedella Marley, Mariah Fox