PureVolume

Marta Gottfried Wiley Biography - 2008 -

First there was the darkness, then came the light… If allegory concedes, then this story metaphorically represents the attainment of love and happiness through expression… for what better way to shine than to channel the light through your hands into a physical medium that can far outlive a typical human lifespan? All fluff aside, what makes a master artist is the love of the expression. That is why a master artist can take on any task for any client and satisfy, because it is the expression and not the creation that is the shining light of the artist, and the work is the mark, the reflection of that artist's light and life left behind for future ages to marvel upon. Every century the globe is graced with a small handful of master painters and thousands of great painters. Why we awe at the greats, it is the masters that make our jaws drop and our hearts beat faster. One such living master is Marta Wiley (Gottfried). What makes this artist a master painter? you may ask. Marta has created over 10,000 paintings and written over 2,000 songs (over 100 albums!). Unbound by medium, Marta is also a talented sculptor, fashion designer, model, poet, and author (soon to be publishing her first book based upon her experiences with Carlos Castaneda). Few artists and musicians will ever achieve such a feat, and Marta is barely in the prime of her career! Already in her young life her work is compared to masters such as Picasso and Warhol. While the characters in her paintings are dynamic, realistic, and believable, it is the mythological and abstract content in motion that merits hours of study per piece (even if painted in less time!).

Marta is unbound to any theme, though a definite style emerges in her work. Pressing the boundaries of the imagination with the utmost intensity of emotion, her paintings leave you staring into a soul mirror, observing a part of yourself for the first time. Marta's painting varies in several styles. Her oil paintings are flowing with brush strokes that create a ripple of constant motion across the surface of the canvas. Complex layers and gorgeously realistic characters (often portrayed in deep contemplation) tell great stories within a single image. Whether it be a tall and beautiful red head leading a pack of a wolves, a heart shaped factory pluming smoke into the sky, or a group of women levitating in an upside down-underground pyramid, h er oil paintings will forever burn a pleasant memory into your psyche. With watercolor, ink, and graphite, Marta has channeled thousands of images from her imagination onto a medium, each holding a piece of Marta's light. Acrylic paintings take up the largest inventory of Marta's portfolio. Without second thought her hand moves the brush across the canvas like it is as natural as breathing. In a few well placed strokes, great images begin to emerge immediately, and it is not uncommon for a friend of Marta's to note her beginning as many as twenty paintings and finishing them within a few days. And that doesn't mean boring carbon copy work, but genuine art of high quality. For it is the goal of all passionate artists to be great prolifically…the formula for masterhood. And Marta Wiley has achieved this. Undeniably rich content fills her work. Great dancers, mermaids, abstract creatures, muses, aliens, animals, geometry, and a variety of symbols are just some of the amazing content one can see by simply typing in the words: Marta Wiley into an internet search engine. Hundreds of Marta's images are available for sale at www.martawiley.com, including prints and originals, as well as a multitude of other online sources that sell her art and music. Chances are, you are already familiar with her work and have seen her images somewhere across the globe, as she is well established in the global market.

Describing painting as her first language, Marta began pushing pigments at the age of two in a creative and pr estigious household in Mexico City, and was taught by famous painter (her grandmother), Martha Gottfried. From the time she could giggle and hold a brush, Marta has been surrounded by great musicians and painters. Martha, being a landscape artist, taught Marta to paint realism. Immersed in the rich Mexican culture, Marta came into touch with her imagination. At the age of 9, Marta moved with her parents and siblings to Miami, Florida, where she attended SouthWood Junior High Magnet School, focused on the arts. Taking regular trips to Art Galleries across the East Coast, such at the New York Gallery of Modern Art and the Dali Museum, Marta fell in love with the works for Salvidor Dali and M.C. Escher for their ability to capture the dream world, its holistic content, metamorphosis, and flow of positive and negative. Having been taught to be a landscape painter at the age young age, she began focusing her content on her own imagination and her dream world, giving life to the rich world inside of her head. While at SouthWood, Marta discovered that she is a surrealist artist at heart. At the same time she was challenged by the long hours of school focused on music and painting, and she felt very out of place when interacting with other children, wondering why she had to go to a special school. Around this time, the age of about 15, Marta began drawing profusely, especially line work and people, and other images from her mind. Still, Marta's studies focused on life drawing, still lives, blind contours, drawing from memory, and many other techniques which provided artistic experience. There was a disruption at SouthWood and Marta and her family moved to Phoenix, Arizona, where Marta, at the age of 15, passed several tests to attend The New World School of Arts High School. In the new environment, Marta flourished socially. At the age of 16, Marta had her heart broken for the first time. The event sparked so much anger and grief that she ran to the store and bought her first real canvas. Without thought, she channeled her emotions in the paint and created her first masterpiece. God yelling out all of his memories. As the painted unfolded, she realized she had encapsulated a small piece of God's soul. For the first time she felt in control of capturing essence within paint. Never had she painted what was coming out of her soul so thoroughly. No longer feeling pain or agony from the heartbreak, Marta felt great ecstasy from painting her emotions. Realizing its great therapeutic power, Marta began making it work for her rather than it being a duty that her family wanted her to do. From there on she painted her entire room, a wall with a mural of a forest, a big lady with black hair and eyes the size of Marta's head was facing the observer singing, and on another wall she painted a black box. Representing the great void of the unknown. Suddenly, her art talents exploded. The force of the normal life freed her to become the painter she is, because it became all about the expression. Used mixed Media, Marta created a series of 30 paintings of a woman in chaos touching the eye of god and then twirling around in bliss. In 1990 Marta entered the Miss Billy Moore Beauty Pageant, and she credits her win of both Miss Congeniality and Miss Billy Moore, to that series of paintings, which was one of the truest expressions of herself. With incredible momentum behind her, Marta was given a full scholarship to the Otis Parson's School of Design in Los Angeles, California. Immersed in a big city, and feeling intellectually stifled, Marta realized that the teacher's were cold, calculating machines that didn't treat the students like equals. Turning to knowledge, Marta began reading the works of Sylvia Plath and involving herself more in artists lives and history. Realizing that artists in the past had been jailed for painting certain things, and sometime persecuted to death. Marta realized that people paint in the face of death for the blissful expression it brings, for what greater statement than a painted image? Patrons of the church had been the only survivors. With the knowledge of past persecution and control of painters, Marta felt a duty to all the great painters of the past to reach a new plateau with her paintings. In her dorm, people buzzed about the intense scene Marta Wiley was painting. When it was completed, viewers were faced with a multitude of philosophical questions from the content that was daring and bold: A Devil raping an Angel. Twisting her head back and smashing her into the ground w hile deflowering her innocence. Civilization raping nature. Many people were taken aback. By this time in her freshmen year, things were speeding out of control. She went to sign the work in the studio at school, and it had been stolen, the whereabouts of or whether the original even still exists is still unknown. At the same time there was a complication with her scholarship paperwork and she would not be able to attend her sophomore year without paying her own tuition. Feeling the coldness of the world, Marta moved back to Phoenix, Arizona to live with her family and continued her studies at The Arizona State University.

It would be the next years of Marta's life that would teach her the greatest lessons and define her path. Now back with her family and studying at ASU. Marta began working for Phoenix Art Press, a large company that employed many talented painters and distributed and sol their work across the globe. Singing for a group called Squiddlergunter, Marta began finding her place in the music world, also playing guitar and singing for a group called DragWorm, whom was influenced by CoctoweTwins and The Dead Can Dance. At the Age of 21, Marta painted her masterpiece the Lepa Zena. With the Phoenix Art Press, Marta began getting a taste of being published and having people distribute her work. Painting for 9 hours a day and slowly studying less and less, Marta began seeing her work at local stores such as Zia Gallery, Target, Pier One Imports and more. While this was a boost, it made h er question why she was making near minimum wage for her hours when her work was being sold all over the world. Though she completed over 2,000 paintings with Phoenix Art Press, it came to an end one day as she was riding up the escalator to work and a colleague said "Hey, I just thought you should know." and handed her a report of all the revenues she had generated for the company. Worldwide, her Lepa Zena alone has pulled in over $600 million dollars of retail sales, and her combined works had brought in more than $12 million dollars a year wholesale for several years, yet Marta had not made a dime in royalties and was only earning $40,000 yearly. The Lepa Zena is a top seller in China, where the horse symbolizes success, money, luck, and glory. Surprisingly, it's success has been parallel with China's ascent to Super Power. Though she was legally bound at the time to stay with Phoenix Art Press, after the revelation of how badly she had been used, she moved to Tucson, Arizona to change her environment. She realized that there was no consideration for visual artists and few maintained any of their intellectual property rights. As a way to defame and devalue the artist, Phoenix Art Press sold all of her original works for a little as $5-$60, as they would do to any artist who left their ranks. At this point, Marta was continuing her schooling at the University of Arizona, when the Phoenix Art Press sent her a cease and desist letter, trying to prevent her from making a living off of her painting unless she was their slave. They felt they made her a star in the industry, and in some ways they did; but they told her she couldn't use what she had learned. In response she said "I have to, it's in my DNA." To rewind a moment, several other major events were taking place in Marta's life. While working at ASU she met the famous Author/Sorcerer, Carlos Castaneda. For several years she spiraled into that world and it caused her to have a hazy recollection of some events. While learning great secrets of the world from Carlos, he also pressed her to the maximum and the student/teacher relationship would eventually be ended, but for several years, Marta would suffer mental anguish from her interactions with the Sorcerer. For further details on Marta's experiences with Carlos, please keep an eye out for her upcoming book, due for release early 2009! With great distress, Marta went on soul searching journey to heal her wounds. She contributes a trip to India with saving her life. There she went to four healers that performed different techniques, including a Puja purification ceremony. The main focus was freeing the trapped energy tied to the people that had wronged her.

After a remarkable journey, Marta and her sister Cristiana went backpacking for several weeks across Europe, focusing on seeing all the museums and art as possible. Next followed a 2 month summer vacation in Scotland focusing on watercolor painting of mountain scapes and nature scenes; returning to realism. Becoming grounded, Mar ta returned to Tucson to pursue music. Experience proved to be the greatest school. Without anger or remorse for the past, Marta moved on from the tyrants in her life. Now in Tucson, Marta and her sister, Cristiana, created the band WOMB (Warriors Of Make Believe), an all female trio. With Marta singing lead vocals and playing acoustic guitar, Cristiana rocked the drums and also did vocals. Teamed up with Debbie Lorray on the Bass guitar and vocals, the three young women began making songs based upon political, religious, social, environmental, sexual, and ethical content; earning them a revolutionary folk punk reputation. At this point in her blooming music career, Marta swore to fund music with art, to speak about what she wanted to speak about, rather than singing bs and painting what they want. While studying Art History at U of A, Marta received a phone call from Larry Winn of Grand Image. She signed with him and began painting 30 paintings a month for $2000. For almost five years this would continue, leaving a legacy of over 4000 paintings with Grand Image. It was with Grand Image that Marta brought cultural elements into mainstream art. African portraits of Marta's was soon followed by a trend of African home décor across the U.S.. While Marta was getting paid for what she loved, she dropped out of U of. During the next several years, WOMB would tour all over the United States and produce 3 albums, including two studio L.P.'s with renowned songwriter and producer, Gardner Cole. Though her rel ationship with Larry Winn of Grand Image was one of friendship and mentorship, eventually the contracts became too much. So fed up with a variety of things in her life and especially her painting, so in 2002 she moved to San Miguel, Mexico and quit WOMB (which would not regroup until 2007) in this desperate attempt to return to the soul of why she painted. Not wanting to be a published artist or a rock star, Marta burned all her contracts and sent nasty letters to every publisher she had worked with detailing their oppression of the artist. In the letter she told them to sue her, which they were trying to do because she displayed art at the New York Art Expo. She would not take their intimidation and she knew New York would be the platform that would set her free. "You can't stop an artist from making a living." It was this truth that set her free from the corporations. And Marta didn't publish with anyone for 5 years, though she recently re-signed with Winn Devon. (Now, Marta has a representative in every country in the world, and accounts with all major countries. She is an internationally acclaimed artist.) In Mexico, Marta's paintings began to build a buzz and so she opened a gallery. Her art caught on, and she soon had all sorts of clients and tourists seeking her work. During that year Marta painted and sold over 300 paintings. Again in the same situation, painting for money and having lost her anonymity, Marta moved back to Arizona. Now back in Phoenix, Arizona, Marta began the pursuit of her solo music career and continued with her tremendous paintings and has shows around the world. Also Warriors Of Make Believe is back and kicking! Marta is such a powerful manifester, and has started many trends. Society follows art, and she created many a craze with Outlet stores carrying her work. The popularity of her work has dictated the direction of other trends related to the cultural content she produces. With her knife and fork series of paintings, many posh restaurants began ordering her images and chef's buying originals. With her classical looks and style, Marta is a testament to the silent power of art. What is next for Marta Wiley? A stunning series of Japanese Gaisha's. Keep an eye out for all of Marta's upcoming work as it is sure to get better and better. Also check out her albums on cdbaby.com; Red Honey, Amnesia, Mechanical Heart, and Unknown Host are all recommended listening. It is clear from her powerful past and intense life that she was destined to become a master artist, which could easily be argued with the fact that Marta is humble, generous, and gives often to charities, that it is her wise and loving spirit that makes her work great. For any work is just a small reflection of the artist. With many years of work ahead of her, Marta is writing history.