Meet Melissa Marsella | Designer/Illustrator/Nun

We had the good fortune of connecting with Melissa Marsella and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Melissa, how has your perspective on work-life balance evolved over time?
Oh, Ms. Balance, we’re not very familiar with her ‘round these parts. To be honest I think we use balance as a method of self-flagellating like a good Catholic does on Sundays. It’s a concept that I see being sold to me everywhere… Something to motivate us to go to workout classes and to buy maca-infused smoothies so we can tell ourselves we’re “being good”.  I’m not saying those things are inherently bad, but if I made a list of the things necessary to balance my life (as told to me by social media & neverending marketing emails in my inbox), and followed it step-by-step, I’d have about three spare minutes in my day to do anything of real value. I’ve found that life is inherently balanced when you zoom out and look at the big picture, so I don’t put much thought into turning myself into a human level. Some weeks I work hard and sleep very little. Other weeks are slower and I have more time to go on walks and see those I love. Both are necessary. During a fast paced week I don’t want to balance my life, but I want to feel like I’m running downhill too fast towards whatever has sparked my interest. I love that feeling and I don’t want to lessen it. Tumbling over rocks and stuff. If that means I don’t work out for a few days, I’m fine with that. I haven’t had time to cook? I don’t care. All you can do is have the discipline to check in on yourself and make sure you haven’t moseyed off too far in one direction or the other.

I could watch Fellini, Goddard and Kubrick for days on end, feeling delighted by the cinematography and letting the unfamiliar wash over me; this will be followed by a phase of doom scrolling on TikTok until I find the strangest videos made by mankind. I could be hypnotized by the theater of the absurd (The Real Housewives franchise <3), or I could be bookworming it up with every SMS chat muted. The only thing I can do is constantly observe how my life balances out and try not to fight it? If I feel pulled deeply into one direction, I know eventually I’ll be pulled into another. The only thing I know for sure is that going on walks, cooking, drawing, and reading never fails to make me feel good.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
There is another interview here on VoyageLA where I answer this question in a lot more depth. To find it I am sure all you have to do is type my name into the search bar 🙂 To not be repetitive, I can tell you that once my duties at my day job are finished, I work on a lot of different design/illustration/photography projects. And no, it hasn’t been easy but when you really want to work on certain things it becomes a pleasure to partake in the process of getting there. In the last month or so I’ve experienced the joy of working on some personal projects, and I am currently coordinating everything so I can release some prints of my drawings as well as a few other items. Lately I am learning the lesson of participating in and enjoying the unfamiliar.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?

Well, I’d start with making them come to LA on a weekend that contains the second Sunday of the month, to allow ourselves the holy day for thrifting at the Rose Bowl. The Echo Park Flea market is great too. Afterwards, beers at a bad Irish Pub in Pasadena that I can’t ever remember the name of. The waiters will completely ignore us, which will allow us to sit and catch up for as long as we want. During the week we would coffee shop hop while strolling around Echo Park and Silverlake. Whether they want to or not, a drag show followed by dancing in WeHo. Airdrop memes to an unsuspecting audience. A night drive down Sunset Blvd, maybe sneak up to the top of The Rainbow Room to feel the glam rock fantasy… or head over to Permanent Records in Cypress Park. Escuela Tacqueria, Arcana Books, Skylight Books (the annex), El Prado, The Bagel Broker.  Footsies, Tony’s Saloon, The Gold Line, Jumbo’s Clown Room, definitely King Taco. Stand in one of the few lines that are worth the wait – Courage Bagels.  I recently went to Love Hour in Ktown which was really fun.  Erewhon on Beverly for the theater of it all. Guess the prices of things… Go to the New Beverly Theater at 7pm and see whatever movie is playing. Or the Los Feliz Theater. Make sure to go downtown and walk through little Tokyo before going to the Arts District.  Avoid Rodeo Drive at all costs. Drive to the beach in the late afternoon with pizza and let the evening be punctuated by the sunset. Have a playlist ready for the ride.

Oh and I forgot to mention, I find it most important to start planting seeds that illustrate how awful Hollywood Blvd’s Star Walk is weeks prior to anyone’s visit.

The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?
I could jam up a 10 TB hard drive with names of people, books, movies etc. who have helped me along the way (I have to mention books and movies because that really is where a lot of my perspective and vision for things comes from). I am most grateful to those who introduce me to new perspectives and therefore make me feel more deeply involved with the world around me. It bothers me constantly that I can’t find the proper words to express how grateful I am to my family, close friends, and every coworker I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know along the way.  I also have a deep appreciation for every person that is willing to entertain nonsense conversations just to see where they might take us. For fear of someone reading this and being offended for not seeing their name, I’ll stick to directly naming books and movies (in no particular order).

books:

-Too Much and Not the Mood by Durga Chew-Bose
-Art on My Mind by bell hooks
-On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous by Ocean Vuong
-How to Do Nothing by Jenny Odell
-Speculative Thinking by Dunne & Rabi
-The Poetics of Space by Gaston Bachelard
-America by Jean Baudrillard
-Design as Art by Bruno Munari
-Ways of Seeing by John Berger
-Lyrical and Critical Essays by Albert Camus
-anything by Aldous Huxley
-Air Guitar by Dave Hickey
-The Americans by Robert Frank
-Humor by Stanley Donwood
-Supernatural Strategies for Making A Rock n’ Roll Group by Ian Svenonious
-A Paradise Built in Hell by Rebecca Solnit

movies/shows:
-Anything Polly Platt worked on
-La Grande Bellezza
-The Silence of the Lambs
-Juliet of the Spirits
(… anything & everything by Fellini)
-The Century of the Self
-Allegro Non Troppo
-La Chinoise
-Blue Velvet
-One Hour Photo
-Wings of Desire
-Suspiria (the older one.. And then the new one)
-A Clockwork Orange
-All the President’s Men
-Fallen Angels
-Fire of Love
-Atlanta
-Abstract series on Netflix
-The Young Pope
-I Think You Should Leave
-Rick and Morty
-UNHhhh (the girls that get it, get it)

Website: https://www.melissamarsella.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/melissamarsella/

Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@illuminaughty1111

Image Credits
@melissamarsella