Maria Vallese poses alongside the windows she painted at the Mustard Seed in Canal Place.

By Dave Warner

Frankfort—Maria Vallese grew up in the West Frankfort area, graduating from Frankfort schools in 2006 and then graduating from RIT with a Bachelor’s Degree in Illustration.

“The economy was in a weird place in 2010 when I moved home. A lot of magazine companies and traditional illustration jobs were collapsing and changing.”

So, Vallese went into floral design and did her art on the side. “I started doing freelance pretty early, and then I kind of took a bit of a break from it to explore what I really wanted to do with my art. I had the opportunity to do that because of the floral job,” she said.

Gradually, Vallese grew her business until she landed her biggest client in 2015 – Saranac Brewery. “Prior to that, I had been working with smaller local businesses, community organizations, and MadeinUtica.com, which was a big one.”

She’s worked with Mohawk Valley Edge and Annie’s Homegrown. “I did a sticker campaign for them a few years ago. They needed some stickers done, so I designed those.”

Vallese started out doing a lot of portrait work and caricatures,  “But I got cornered into doing a lot of family portraits. I kind of graduated from all of that. The world was changing, though.

Currently, Vallese is more focused on the retail side of her business. “You’ll see me at the craft shows and things like that – selling my artwork, my prints, and my crafty things.”

While in her new studio in Frankfort, she primarily focuses on acrylics. “I do a lot of color pencil work, and a lot of what I did for Saranac was black-and-white pen and ink, watercolor, and digital.”

Vallese had her studio and office in Clinton for twelve years, and then a space came up in Frankfort just as they were raising her rent in Clinton, so she took it.

“I’m offering classes there now, running a couple of times a week. There are workshops in January, February, and March, and I will be doing summer this year because I have an air conditioner. I do open up for retail sales during Christmas time and offer a few weekends of an open studio,” she said.

When asked about the windows that she painted at the Mustard Seed in Canal Place, she stated, “I’ve done a lot of murals. A 1,500-square-foot one at Players of Utica. The actual mural is about 40 feet high, and then there’s about six and a half feet underneath of stonework. That was my biggest one.”

Prior to that, she had done work at Utica Coffee and other businesses, where they would ask her to do something Utica-related.

“Kim and Adam at Little Falls Diamond, when they moved down to Canal Place, wanted something that would really pop in their windows. So we did one window with some of their favorite tumble stones, and then we did a mug and some merchandise, and then we did their other window, and that kind of led to other people asking me,” Vallese stated.

She said that Julie Webster at the Mustard Seed is always the best to work with. “She’s so fun and she gives me direction, but trusts me enough, which is your ideal client. You want them to give you some direction, but you also want them to trust you enough to make your own choices.”

Webster wanted a winter wonderland look. “We sat down right before Christmas. She was focusing on the comforts of winter and how to appreciate that. How to make your home cozy and warm during this time of rest and relaxation.”

Vallese said that Webster wanted all Little Falls locations depicted so people would appreciate what we have here. “A lot of my personal artwork ends up being landmarks as well because I love building architecture and its personality as it ages.”

“A lot of my building illustrations are not perfect, but that’s purposely done. They’re a little wonky and a little bit of distortion to portray how the space feels versus your typical architectural drawing,” she stated.

Vallese also had to paint all of the structures backward since she worked from inside the store. “I prefer to do it on the inside because it’s easier to scrape off when you need it to, and it’s harder to scrape off when you don’t want it to.”

Juli Webster, owner of the Mustard Seed, stated, “I asked her to make it look like a magical winter village – a Hygge  – a Scandinavian word that means warm and cozy. So every January and February, that’s the vibe we go for – warm, cozy, and a slightly magical look – very white and bright.”

“When I come into Little Falls, that hill is absolutely magic when the trees are covered in snow. There’s nothing else around here that looks anything like that,” she said.

Webster stated, “I asked Maria to help me capture that magic of Little Falls and make it look like this winter village, and whoah, baby! She did it.”

Vallese said she will return in the spring to redo the windows at the Mustard Seed with new scenes.

If you’d like to find out more, you can visit her website at https://www.retrosorrento.com/, or @retrosorrento on other social media.