Hello! I'm Maria, an animator and illustrator with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Animation, specializing in 2D/3D/stop-motion character animation, storyboarding, illustration, and character design. I've loved cartoons and movies since I was little, and spent countless hours as a young girl playing through VHS tapes frame-by-frame, tracing characters on my TV and then drawing them on my own, talking about movies with my friends and family...which then led to drawing my own characters and telling my own stories. Since then, I've taken the steps to reach my dreams of sharing these ideas with other people, and have worked with clients such as the Cleveland Museum of Natural History and Three Butterflies Publishing Co, as well as the Cleveland Institute of Art itself. I have been featured in CIA's Spring Shows 2014-2017, as well as the BFA Exhibition 2020, and am a recipient of CIA's Award for Excellence in Animation 2014-2015. I look forward to helping realize my own and others' creative visions in the future!