Sector Seven Contemporary Art Gallery (S7CAG) is pleased to announce the public art exhibition of Mariana Mello. This exhibition, currently on display at Jones Coffee Roasters in South Pasadena (1006 Mission St, South Pasadena, CA 91030), features a series of original artwork titled Celestial.
The exhibition is open for viewing from Saturday, November 1st through Sunday, November 30, 2025. Guests are invited to explore the collection during operating hours, 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily, with extended hours until 6:00 PM during the summer season.
Following this debut exhibition, the collection will tour a network of third spaces where S7CAG presents artists to the public.
For archival purposes, please note that the artist biography below was developed through an interview that was conducted over email on October 24, 2025. Esteban Lopez was in South Pasadena, California, while Mariana Mello was in Los Angeles, California at their home office.
Whispers of the Wind: The Making of an Artist
Born and raised in a coastal town in Brazil, Mariana Mello grew up surrounded by the natural forces and cultural vibrancy that would later define her artistic vision. From an early age, she felt a profound connection to the elements — a relationship that first revealed itself when, at the age of eight, her parents discovered a crumpled piece of paper in their yard. It was a prayer she had written to the Wind. That same day, the whipping coastal gusts had stirred something within her, and in a moment of pure devotion, she danced in communion with what she would later call the Wind Goddess. This early act of reverence marked the beginning of her lifelong dialogue with the unseen and the sacred.
Mariana’s creative foundation was nurtured by her parents, both of whom embodied a quiet artistry through their respective callings. Her father, a journalist and writer, devoted his career to social justice and environmental protection. His investigative reporting once led to the restoration of a polluted wetland — an achievement that allowed the scarlet ibis, a brilliantly red bird native to the region, to return and flourish once more. In retirement, he turned his focus inward, publishing a series of books exploring humanity’s role as a cosmic being. Her mother, on the other hand, expressed creativity through theater, storytelling, fashion design, and visual arts. Mariana recalls childhood afternoons spent rehearsing plays with her cousins and neighborhood friends under her mother’s direction, their front yard transformed into a stage of imagination. Though her parents never identified themselves as artists, their lives — rich with creativity, compassion, and purpose — provided an enduring model of what artistry could be.
As a teenager, Mariana’s world expanded through music. Her friends were all musicians, forming bands and performing Brazilian classics alongside the sounds of 1960s and ’70s American and British rock. She often sang with them at local concerts, immersing herself in the rhythm and energy of performance. At sixteen, she embraced the spirit of self-expression even further — cutting her hair short and discovering grunge culture, a movement that mirrored her growing sense of individuality.
Despite being steeped in creativity, Mariana did not initially see herself as an artist. “I thought artists were born with some sacred gift,” she once reflected, “one that I simply had not been bestowed with by the Wind Goddess or any other god I knew.” At eighteen, she moved to the United States to pursue higher education, following what she believed to be the sensible path. She became an attorney — a career that, while intellectually stimulating, felt distant from her creative yearnings. “I wanted to be a writer, a creator, a dancer, a devotee of the Wind,” she said. “But I thought a lawyer was as close as I could realistically get to my dreams. It involves writing, right? Isn’t that good enough?”
In time, she would learn that it was not.
Illumination from Within
Mariana’s early commitment to justice and environmental protection led her to pursue a career in law — a choice she viewed as both practical and purposeful. Her decision was guided by a deep love for people and nature, values she had inherited from her parents and carried into her professional life. Yet, while her legal work was grounded in advocacy and intellect, it left little room for the creativity that had long stirred within her.
After several demanding years in the legal field, the mounting stress and emotional toll prompted a reevaluation of her path. Motherhood provided the pause she needed. As she stepped away from her career to care for her two young children, Mariana turned inward, seeking peace through meditation. What began as a practice of quiet reflection soon became a gateway to something far greater. Behind her closed eyes, she began to see bursts of light, shapes, and colors — vivid manifestations of the inner world she had long suppressed. “Meditation broke a dam inside of me,” she later reflected. “I didn’t know what was behind that dam yet, but I was soon to find out.”
One night, after her children had fallen asleep, she cleared a small desk, gathered a few sheets of paper and charcoal pencils, and began to draw. The image that emerged — a horse running free, its mane caught in the wind — marked the moment of her creative awakening. It was the same wind she had danced with as a child in Brazil, now returning to carry her into a new chapter of her life. Through that single drawing, she realized that the artist she once believed she was not “born to be” had been within her all along.
From then on, Mariana approached art not as a career shift, but as an act of liberation. Creating became both meditation and expression — a process of reconnection with the self and the divine. While many of her works are made for personal fulfillment, she also recognizes the power of sharing them publicly. “When I share my artwork with others,” she has said, “I forge a connection I cannot create alone. My art wants to be in dialogue with the viewer.”
That dialogue — between artist and audience, between spirit and form — would become the foundation of her ongoing practice: a merging of justice, spirituality, and creativity into a single, harmonious path.
Channeling the Internal
Mariana’s art emerges from a lifelong dialogue with the divine — a conversation shaped by meditation, intuition, and the spiritual vitality of her Brazilian heritage. Each piece she creates serves as both offering and inquiry, a way of bridging the tangible world with the unseen realms that speak through color, rhythm, and form. Her creative process is, at its core, an act of service — a means to awaken herself and others to the sacred dimension that exists within all beings.
Meditation has long been the channel through which Mariana perceives the images that later take form in her paintings. During these moments of deep stillness, visions arrive fully formed — flashes of light, figures, and textures that pulse with spiritual energy. Translating these impressions into visual art allows her to share what she experiences internally: a vivid communion between matter and spirit.
Guided by intuition rather than intellect, she allows her “gut knowing” to shape each work, often sensing when a painting is complete by the subtle shift in its energy. Through this practice, Mariana embodies her belief that “God is a woman,” an idea not of gender but of sacred balance — nurturing, creative, and endlessly generative. Her art, infused with this divine feminine essence, invites viewers to embark on their own inner journey, to rediscover their inherent wholeness, and to recognize their role in the greater harmony between humanity and nature.
The Creative Dialogue
Rooted in this spiritual awareness, Mariana’s creative philosophy expands beyond the canvas into a broader reflection on identity, femininity, and divine expression. Her art becomes both testimony and translation — a means of giving form to what is felt, known, and intuited. For Mariana, art is not merely an act of creation but a dialogue — a continuous exchange between the self and the spirit, the individual and the collective, the seen and the unseen. Her practice is an effort to make the invisible visible, to translate divine energy into form and color. Each piece becomes a record of that conversation, where intuition, meditation, and feminine strength converge.
She views herself through many lenses — as a woman, mother, immigrant, daughter, and friend — each identity refracting the light of her experience. Yet beneath them all lies a deeper awareness: that she, like every human being, is Divine Light in physical form. Her paintings, then, are not depictions of something external but expressions of that inner radiance, filtered through the unique prism of her life. “My art-making process,” she reflects, “is nothing more than translating that divinity through my human lens.”
The women who inhabit her canvases embody leadership, sensuality, sacred anger, and creation itself. They are symbols of strength and healing, manifestations of the divine feminine that she believes resides within everyone. Through their gaze, their posture, and the interplay of color and movement, Mariana seeks to remind viewers of their own sacred potential — their innate capacity to lead, to nurture, and to transform.
In this way, her art becomes both invocation and mirror: a call to remember the holiness within, and a reflection of the feminine force that shapes the universe.
Community, Vision, and the Future of Art
For Mariana, art extends beyond the canvas into the realm of shared experience and collective healing. She recognizes the transformative power of community spaces, or “third-spaces,” as vital hubs for connection and resilience. Following the fires of early 2025, for instance, Jones Coffee Roasters became a center for fundraising and support for the victims of the Eaton fire. Having her work present in such venues is both a privilege and a responsibility, allowing her art to contribute meaningfully to the communities it touches. Through these interactions, she hopes her work serves as a portal into the viewer’s own inner divinity and strength, sparking passion, purpose, and the courage to manifest dreams into reality.
Looking forward, Mariana envisions a life fully devoted to creation. She has committed herself to cultivating fearlessness, authenticity, and alignment — transforming her body, mind, and life to serve the art she loves. Her ambitions are expansive: she seeks to produce large-scale public sculptures, immersive multisensory experiences, and collaborative projects with artists across the globe. At the heart of these goals lies a simple measure of success: the ability to remain in the flow of creation, connected to purpose, and actively contributing to the creative energy of her local and international communities.
Through this integration of perhsonal discipline, communal engagement, and visionary artistry, Mariana continues to forge a path that unites spiritual insight, cultural heritage, and social impact — making her work not just an expression of self, but a catalyst for connection, inspiration, and transformation.
You can follow Mariana Mello artistic journey on Instagram: @MarianaMelloArt. All artwork is avaialble for purchase, contact Esteban at esteban@s7cag.com or visit Mello's online art gallery by clicking here.
S7CAG is pleased to present the public art exhibition of original artwork by Mariana Mello, currently on display at Jones Coffee Roasters in South Pasadena (1006 Mission St, South Pasadena, CA 91030). The exhibition is open for viewing from Saturday, November 1st through Sunday, November 30, 2025. Guests are invited to explore the collection during operating hours, 7:00 AM to 5:00 PM daily, with extended hours until 6:00 PM during the summer season.