Mariana Nelson was born and raised in Newport Beach, California. She moved to San Francisco in her early 20’s and became involved in a thriving and inspired art community where she found her focus on reusing existing materials.

She began wrapping discarded materials found at reuse centers and also from the street. Using an age old Japanese wrapping technique called Temari, she soon developed a pattern that was unique to her alone. Anything from lint, dog hair and found plastic was wrapped with bright and colorful fiber, transforming trash into treasure.

As Mariana’s collection of small Temari grew, she began to find ways of assembling them together to create large pieces. Her current body of work involves using hundreds of wrapped forms to create one unified piece. Some of her work explores the idea of dark matter, while other compositions focus mostly on color and shape. She is also using a large collection of  plastic coffee cup lids, melting them into flower like sculptures.

MELT will open December 18th from 4:30-6:30pm and run thru February 12th.

Here is Mariana preparing her Temari piece featured in the S.C.R.A.P show.

Warm up with our winter show, “MELT”; a solo show featuring recent works by Mariana Nelson. Opening Reception is next Friday, December 18th from 4:30-6:30 pm. There will be refreshments available and live music provided by the artist’s brother, Joe Robinson. Come join us and view the result of trash transformed into treasure.

melted coffee cup lid by Mariana Nelson