I am a thirty year old American Sign Language Interpreter in Portland living in the Pacific Northwest. I graduated with my BA in English Literature from The University of California, Berkeley, retrained, and am considering taking up an MA in Deaf Education.  I'm married to a wonderful and supportive man, have a lovely live-in nanny and .  We live in Inner SouthEast.

I have been doing art as an outlet and a productive use of my energy for about fifteen now, and over the last few years I've had much to explore, with my son's neurosurgeries, daughter's Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and brother's new life in a wheelchair. Only in the last few years have I begun to sell anything, through the magic that is Ebay. When I found the EBSQ community, I was thrilled, especially since they were open to all media and experience levels. I do not now, nor will I ever, have an MFA, and this was a prerequisite for many of the communities I wished to join.

My current projects include a series of portraits of recently deceased friends, which has been cathartic, as well as some photography and pictures of our new home in the Pacific Northwest. Since becoming a mother, I've been working on some women-themed work as well. I'm also working on a project for the Children's Hospital that continually operates on my son. I work on a dozen pieces at once, which allows me many more "inspirational moments" than with one alone.

My first piece that was shown was a mixed media faerie collage in high school, which my art teacher commandeered and entered in an art show. I didn't win, but was amazed that other people enjoyed my work. The next piece was a western dragon that was a gift for my then-boyfriend (now, husband) which still adorns a wall in our bedroom. Fantasy themed subject matter I found to be so open, so subjective, that I stayed in that vein for three or four years, and it is still my favorite and most common subject.

When we got a real computer, I started doing photography, first mostly edits and touch-ups of my wedding photos, and moved into doing large 12x12 scrapbooks, the biggest one being filled with stories and photos of the life of my 92 year old grandmother. When I discovered that I could do my collages digitally, I was thrilled, and spent three days utterly focused. What came out was my RED DRAGON piece. I do all the work free hand (just me and Microsoft's paint program) with photos of mine or found objects (cut pieces of National Geographic figure in highly).

Please take the time to look around, and I hope you enjoy my work. Email me if you have any questions or comments, I'd love the feedback!

Carissa Martos

Approximate prices

Minis:

5x7 - $30

7x9 - $50

Regular sizes:

8x10 - $70

11x14 - $100

12x16 - $125

16x20 - $150

18x24 - $175

22x28 - $200

24x30 - $250

30x40 - $300