Dreamy Street Art of Children by Amanda Mando Marie

I’ll always have a place in my heart for street art, of course no one comes to Banksy but Ernest Zacharevic, Os Gemeos, Etam Cru, and Seth Wall are all up there for me as well. One artist that has popped up on my radar recently is Amanda “Mando” Marie. The Colorado-based painter is known for her eye-catching stencils that are made with acrylic and aerosol and displayed as murals or as paintings on canvas or paper.

There’s a unifying theme to her work, her paintings often consist of children playing or floating in the air. Though some have described her work as “nostalgic storybook-like imagery that is at once playful and ominous,” I don’t understand that feeling of darkness. Marie’s works are inspired by vintage 1940s “Little Golden Book” era illustrations and there’s a recurring visual theme of “twinning” imagery, or a repetition of a child to create doubles. I love the paintings where she creates stars in the children’s eyes, they create a magical mood. Also, notice how gigantic Marie’s murals can be. If you look closely, in the first picture, you can see the artist working on the piece. She looks tiny!

Currently, my favorite art gallery, Thinkspace in Culver City is showing a collection of the artist’s work. You can see them from now through September 10. Marie also contributed a mural piece to this year’s POW! WOW! Antelope Valley, and is featured in the Lancaster Museum of Art and History’s show The New Vanguard, on view from August 13 to October 30.

How I’d love to collect her work!