Mural by Ana Maria

Hailing from Puerto Rico, Ana Maria Ortiz (Ana Marietta) started painting on old wood pieces with tempera paint as a little girl in her dad’s wood shop in Barranquitas. Getting into the University of Puerto Rico Mayagüez, she studied art and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in Animal Science.

Recognized internationally for her anthropomorphic creatures, Ana paints and draws animals with exaggerated human features, creating sympathy for her iconoclastic subjects. With sensibility and dark humor, the artist's noble beasts seem to look at us in silence, going beyond design to convey a unique visual language within the pictorial iconographic tradition.

Ana’s skills to create large-scale murals have been recognized in multiple cities for the subtle brush strokes and shading of hybrid creatures that feature her signature beaks and human-like eyes. Her street pieces reside around the world in London, Miami, Turin, Las Vegas, Hawaii and Kiev among many others.

Her studio work has been exhibited in Mexico, London, and at the prestigious Station Museum of Contemporary Art in Houston. She has also participated in many renowned Art events such as Life is Beautiful Las Vegas, Pow Wow Hawaii, Unexpected in Arkansas, Wynwood Miami, Artscape in Sweden, and SXSW in Austin.