Marla Beth Enowitz’s journey from stay-at-home mom to artist/entrepreneur

Stamford’s Palace Theatre has been closed given that the Covid-19 pandemic took root, but some a great deal-wanted razzmatazz has been additional to the darkened venue’s Atlantic Street glass windows: a brightly kaleidoscopic mural titled “Stars for the Stars” featuring hundreds of summary stars in various sizes and colours floating beneath a curtain of lush clouds.

“Stars for the Stars” is the development of Marla Beth Enowitz, a Rye Brook-based artist and founder of Marla Beth Patterns, which is a new company that generates abstract expressionist paintings and murals on commission.

“I begun the organization in June of very last calendar year through the quarantine,” Enowitz explained. “It was a way for me to categorical myself and it was pretty medicinal for me — I actually didn’t anticipate everything a lot more than to just share what I was carrying out in the course of my quarantine time.”

Enowitz had no preceding encounter starting up a small business — she admitted to a “short occupation in advertising” prior to her 10 decades as a keep-at-house mom — and her art teaching was anything at all but tutorial.

“My training commenced with Bob Ross at 7 yrs old,” she stated, referring to the legendary host of the long-jogging PBS sequence “The Joy of Portray.”

“I established up my easel in my parents’ residing place and did anything he did. And he was a fabulous instructor.”

Although the Marla Beth Types website refers to Enowitz’s get the job done as abstract expressionism, she prefers to outline her perform as “happy art” — and, in fact, her vibrant hues and bold styles definitely develop a diploma of inventive jollity.

Enowitz at first started sharing her operate by using social media, but phrase-of-mouth distribute substantially faster than she predicted and she before long started fielding requests for primary do the job. To date, she has obtained additional than 40 significant-scale commissions from across the region, with initial is effective of around 5 ft by 6 toes in measurement.

“I now have about 3,300 followers on Instagram — persons come across me and it’s truly unbelievable,” she said. “I’m shipping and delivery a massive piece to Tucson, Arizona this week.”

Final drop, Enowitz gained her very first fee for a publicly shown perform for a 600-square-foot mural at The Westchester shopping mall in White Plains. The do the job, titled “Gumballs,” is painted on the glass of the former Justice retail store and delivers a startling burst of a number of hues to the cavernous space. Enowitz concluded the operate in the span of two weeks and gained a little something of a workout in the system.

“It is about 14 ft substantial, so I definitely acquired up there — and I’m a little human being,” she laughed.

With the Palace Theatre mural, Enowitz sought to channel the venue’s affect on the community creativeness during the pre-pandemic era.

“To have that shut for the duration of Covid is such a reduction for the public and the performers,” she said. “My inspiration was a gesture to the performers, with the hope that they will come back before long. This was just a minimal pink carpet to roll out for when things can continue in the earth once again.”

Enowitz labored in acrylic paints on “Stars for the Stars” and employed a variety of brushes to attain diverse textural benefits. And when resourceful operate is achieved in a solo execution, she admits that she receives some more help when her “dear husband will occur alongside to fall off” the ladders wanted for the upper edges of the get the job done.

Enowitz is now arranging her third general public function at The Jefferson Valley Mall in Yorktown Heights and is providing a line of canvases by way of her website for which she will donate the profits to the artwork plan at The Arc Westchester, a nonprofit assisting the developmentally disabled.

“I’m just carrying out a great deal and enjoying each and every minute of it,” she claimed.