Interviewer: I recently had the pleasure to sit down with one Anamarie Morales to discuss her Etsy shop, Pretty Bizarre. To start us off I have to ask, how did you come up with the name for your shop?

Anamarie: I wanted a name that best described the subject of my paintings. Combining beauty and the macabre, or frightening. So after a bit of time spent mulling it over, Pretty Bizarre was decided.

I: What inspires your painting subjects?

A: I'm replacing frightening with odd.

I: Could you give me some examples of what you found to be frightening and turned it into odd?
Perhaps with a specific painting, what the inspiration was at first and how it turned out?

A: When I look through my paintings I get the side show vibe rather than house of horrors. I can see Mia: Censored (Stitch mouth) Standing on a stage demonstrating to the crowd how she can endure any amount of self inflicted pain.

I: Moving on to something completely different. What can you tell me about The White Room?

A: It's my work space, the only blank quiet place where I can work without being influenced by the constant traffic in the rest of the house. Yes it's my room, and it's called The White Room because everything has been painted white. The walls, furniture, everything is white. This environment allows me to let my imagination run free.

I: What got you started painting?

A: I took an art class in high school and the teacher, my favorite teacher sense kindergarten, forced us to do two or three painting assignments. He didn’t teach us how to paint, he taught us to paint what we love, what interested us. But I hated painting, so I did the assignments and when the class ended decided never to paint again. The next year he approached me and told me he had fought to put together a class, “Art 2: Paint” for a select few, 8 student to be exact, and I was on the top of the roster. I was shocked, flattered, and angry. I thought I had escaped painting for good. It was during that semester I discovered that I LOVED painting. The more I painted the more I was able to find my voice through it.

I: Can you describe your creative process?

A: I could be listening to music when a verse catches my ear and I'm hit with the imagery so strongly that I have to at least scribble out a rough sketch otherwise it feels like I’ll explode! Then once its on paper I can either get started on putting it to canvas or let it sit for a while to let the story, and vibe mull around my head till its so sharp and it flows freely, traveling from my mind to my wrist, to the fingers, to the brush, to the canvas. Letting the paint sing, telling the story slowly and precisely until the end where it all comes together and I'm free of it. My responsibility to the story is done and now I’m able to leave it up to those who look at the painting to read whatever story they see.