Maria Molteni : S1E11
Maria Molteni is a prolific multimedia and performing artist, educator, organizer, and artist-in-residence with the City of Boston whose work has been featured across the globe from Croatia to Colorado, from the Philippines to Pennsylvania, from Brooklyn to Boston.
Maria and I met up at her fabulously creative workspace/home in Boston, and had a wonderfully inspiring conversation full of laughs and insight about inventing spaces for teaching art, her paralyzing fear of taxidermy, radical vulnerability in love, The Shakers, and the imbalance of power between men and women and its direct effect on her life and career.
The most memorable and touching part of my meeting with Maria happened when the mics were unfortunately turned off. After recording, before taking photographs, Maria and I continued our chat. I shared my feelings of guilt that come up regarding the difficulties women go through in the world, and that I think about the things that I have done in the past that may have been inappropriate. Thankfully, nothing came up along the lines of what's being reported in the media, but the fact that I may have looked too hard at a woman, or asked one too many times for sex, or done anything that negatively affected a stranger, a date, a girlfriend, or a partner without knowing, weighs on my conscience. Maria was kind enough to listen, and offer me thoughtful words of insight, comfort, and truth. I'm sure I've made mistakes. But taking responsibility for them, owning them, and correcting my course is something I have been focusing and will continue to as I progress in life.