October Featured Artist: Marissa Todd

For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it http://marissatoddphotography.…

A native Cal­i­forn­ian, Maris­sa has had a pas­sion for pho­tog­ra­phy since the age of nine when she received her first box cam­era in the late 1950’s. The pas­sion con­tin­ued into col­lege where she received a B.A. in Fine Art from San Jose State Uni­ver­si­ty with an empha­sis in pho­tog­ra­phy. It is only until recent­ly she has had the time and oppor­tu­ni­ties to trav­el nation­al­ly and inter­na­tion­al­ly in the pur­suit of equine images.

It has been said ​“an artist is cre­at­ed from desire, but an artist nat­u­ral­ly has the desire to cre­ate.” It’s what one does with that desire to cre­ate that make a per­son­al state­ment in the art world. Maris­sa has been for­tu­nate to dis­cov­er her per­son­al state­ment in the world of art is hors­es, the equines of the ani­mal king­dom. Most recent­ly she has includ­ed the icon of the Amer­i­can West, the wild mus­tang; along with the cow­boys, ranch life and land­scapes as back­drops. She believes these icons of the Amer­i­can West are time­less visions of our rich her­itage and must be pre­served. Mus­tangs embody the free, wild spir­it of the Wild West that con­tin­ues to this day.

“Hors­es with dis­tinct per­son­al­i­ties are what I am after. I aim to cap­ture that spir­it for the view­er so they can see and feel the emo­tion along with me. My great­est joy is to cap­ture the spir­it of the horse beam­ing with light and tex­ture, and draw­ing the view­er into the piece for a clos­er look.”

In her quest to express the free spir­it and ener­gy of these majes­tic ani­mals, and images of west­ern life, she includes oth­er pho­to edit­ing tech­niques to enhance her vision of each piece.