Maris Jones' Guide to Creating From Your Bedroom
Photographer: Irmak Akgur | Makeup: Glenn Brownell | Hair: Nathan Juergensen | Styling: Dot Bass | Videographer: Marie Koury
This interview is a condensed version of the full feature in The Bed Issue – buy yours here now!
Maris Jones has been creative since day dot. The Philadelphian set designer, author, filmmaker and artist was born to creative parents and encouraged to make her stamp on the world from the get go. For years, Jones worked from her bedroom in her own little world, using dolls and anything she could get her hands on to craft narratives and explore her imagination. As she got older and, just like the rest of us, got her hands on social media, the 33-year-old took a left turn approach to the trending platform of the time – Vine.
Instead of the six second comedy skits many of her peers used the app for, Jones used Vine to express herself, creating and sharing everything from stop-motion, paper doll lip syncs to starring in her own short form music videos. We pour one out for Vine on our Zoom call, where Jones joins from her artist studio in New York, her camera background filled with various props shoved onto shelves.
While the creator has found fans on TikTok, she mourns the fantastical nature of the platform where she first achieved online fame. “In the past, things were more surreal or just kind of like a concept.” She explains, “On TikTok I have to spell things out more to make it more informational and I find that to be the biggest difference with creativity on the internet. It’s shifted.”
Still, Jones doesn’t shy away from sharing her secrets. Behind-the-scenes clips from working on sets for artists like Chappell Roan regularly go viral, her book Unlock Your Aesthetic: A Visual Guide to Find Your Vibe gets stuck into the details of discovering your voice as an artist and below, Jones teaches us how to get creative when all you have is your best ideas and your bedroom floor.
Necklace & Ring: Vesper Obscura | Shorts: Retrofete | Top: Maris Vintage Archive | Shoes: Steve Madden | Earrings: Talent’s Own
Use Limitations As Outlets
“I was born with cerebral palsy which is a neurological disorder that affects movement, posture and coordination and other learning stabilities because it's a brain disorder. So, I really struggled to keep up with everybody and I don’t think I understood why I struggled to fit in or that there was anything that was significantly different about me compared to the other children,” Jones tells me, explaining the roots of her artistry. “All that I knew was that I felt most like myself when I was playing with dolls or any type of toy that I could kind of create my own worlds with and just kind of shape into whatever I wanted something to be, that I had my control over.” Jones emphasises the ability to use your creativity to make yourself feel safe. “It really is a way to really shape shift and create outcomes that [you] can decide to have.”
Top: Reagan Flora | Skirt: Jalyn Young | Shoes: Vetements | Gloves: Pipenco Lorena | Earrings: Talent’s Own
Trust Your Taste
When being creative, especially if you’re producing in a place that doesn’t feel as legitimate or polished as a studio or a classroom, it may feel difficult to find inspiration or know where to begin. Maris has advice for that:, “Don’t listen to anyone else, close your eyes and think about everything you have ever cared about or loved that really just sticks out to you first, think about why you like those things and implement that in your own way,” she says. “Whatever art medium you want to try, take your hand, take those little elements and put it on the paper and whatever that is, work on whatever process you want to get there. But that is your aesthetic. That's the beginning of it.”
More specifically, the Chappell Roan collaborator recommends embracing the past when deciding what to create next. “I think so much of us as humans, what makes us who we are and what we always go back to is just the things that really shaped us as children regardless of things that we acquire usually, it’s a piece that connects to something that you were into when you were younger,” she adds. “There’s always some kind of correlation – not much has changed in terms of the foundations of what I’m drawn to.”
Protect Yourself From Burnout
Whether being creative is your full time job like Maris, or a side hustle that is taking over every nook and cranny of your bedroom, it’s important to make space for yourself and your more unimaginative endeavours. On avoiding burnout, Jones discusses her personal experience: “It’s really hard, I don’t think there is any right answer. I think it’s about finding that balance of restructuring – before I was just making and creating and going and finding it fun but now I have real responsibilities. It’s serious. There’s stakes to it and I’m actually in the middle of trying to figure that out, but I will say that it’s important to me to start finding other hobbies so that when I do have free time, I'm not like ‘Oh I need to go and make something’ because I already am for work. If I find other hobbies outside of creation, that might be helpful for me to know that creating is not everything I'm doing at all times. We are in a very interesting time right now where we are all creating a lot, and we are also having to multi-task a lot, so it’s about finding that healthy balance.”
This interview is a condensed version of the full feature in The Bed Issue – buy yours here now!
