Copyright The Boston Globe
Recently, Molteni restored “A Sea Bird,” one of the basketball court murals they created with the collective they founded, New Craft Artists in Action (NCAA). Originally painted in 2021, the Fort Point work features designs based on Flemish coils and a buoy, and images from stained glass windows in the original Shrine of Our Lady of Good Voyage chapel, which was demolished, rebuilt, and relocated, opening in 2017. There’s also “a prayer/anti-gentrification spell that I spelled out in nautical flag alphabet,” Molteni said. The NCAA’s projects, they said, “center participation over spectatorship when it comes to sports culture, and the liberation of recreation, as opposed to the obsession with corporate commercial sports culture.” In an interview over Zoom and email, the artist talked about basketball, spirituality, art, and hustling. Where to find them: www.mariamolteni.com/ Age: 42 Originally from: Nashville Lives in: Fort Point Making a living: “When you’re a freelance artist, you always have to have another gig lined up,” Molteni wrote. In addition to exhibiting work and taking commission, they teach, consult, and have an online store. Studio: The artist works out of their home at Midway Artist Studios. “People walk into my apartment and ask how I’m a ‘minimalist and a hoarder at the same time,’” they wrote, “because everything is categorized and organized.” How they started: At seven, Molteni said, they told people, “I want to be a pro basketball player, a saint, and an artist.” “I always equated the role of an artist with the role of a saint, which is somebody who fights or stands up for what they believe in,” they said. What they make: Movement, films, inflatable spaces, site-specific painting, fiber art, drawings, and publications. “If I’m being totally honest, I feel like I’m given divine assignments from the universe,” Molteni wrote. “They usually come in the form of a synchronistic invitation to study or research something.” How they work: “Everything starts out very exciting, ideas firing and adrenaline-fueled musing. Then it becomes a painful slog – like ‘what on earth am I doing? Why is it so hard?’ But things start to fall into place, just in time, and then it’s like a euphoric marathon to the finish.”
