Michael Maher Jr. (’07 Illustration), is a storyteller at his core. And he’s living proof that with enough tenacity and a strong gut instinct, your creative voice can change worlds. What started as a job moving furniture on film sets has evolved into a decades-long career in the entertainment industry. From designing the iconic posters in The Ides of March and prop storyboards for the Oscar-winning Argo, to bringing the terrifying Vecna to life in Netflix’s Stranger Things, Michael’s journey is a masterclass in unlocking your creative potential.

The Interview

“I pull from the fundamentals all the time. You are just always looking for complementary colors or how to make something pop with contrast, or the right composition to make you feel a certain way.” –Michael Maher Jr. I would love it if you would share more about how you started in the film industry. There was a tax incentive in Michigan at that time and it brought a lot of films, right at the moment I had gotten out of school. There was a professor at CCS named Keith Newton who worked in the Illustration department, and he was kind enough to encourage me to get my foot in the door on one of these films. Under the lead man are these guys named swings and they’re essentially furniture movers with an artistic eye, who know how to decorate and actually make a set look good. As a swing, in between one of the days where they were filming on location there were a whole bunch of extras there and I started drawing caricatures of them. Then that led to the production designer asking if I could do other things, like graphic design and illustration of any kind, because there are a lot of opportunities in the art department to create props and set deck items and things that are hanging on walls. So, I found a good home, you know? I think I worked for probably 10 or 11 movies after that in Michigan. There was just so much business coming to Detroit, and there weren’t a lot of locals with the experience in the art department that I now had. I was also doing a lot of logo design. My illustration design, wherever I could fork it into whatever was needed, whether it be a book cover that the actors were reading or a poster on someone’s bedroom wall, I was always eager to take those projects on. I would let everyone know I want to do some drawing. This really helped me throughout my entire career. It took almost 10 years to become an illustrator in film. It was a long road, but I had jobs, I was working creatively. And then – then I got a gig on Cosmos. So I moved from Michigan to Los Angeles. Cosmos was a big show for me because there were lots of opportunities to do really cool illustrations. That turned out to be one of the best jobs I’ve ever had. https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/JPEG-image-6.jpg https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/JPEG-image-5.jpg That sounds like it was a huge moment for you. How did it feel when you were able to see that come to fruition? It’s very nerve-racking, actually. But before that, I had done a bunch of really important prop graphic design stuff that was going to be on camera for a number of different films. Ides of March with Ryan Gosling. I got to meet him and interact with him. George Clooney directed it, so I got to meet him as well. For that film, I did all the posters for the political campaign, which were supposed to sort of mimic Obama’s Hope posters. After that, I worked on Argo, which ended up winning an Oscar. Ben Affleck was directing, and I did a bunch of prop storyboards. They were prop storyboards in the film in 1979, and they were supposed to have been drawn by Jack Kirby, who was a legendary comic artist. Those actually ended up on camera because Ben Affleck’s character – and this is a true story, believe it or not – was showing it to the guards at the Tehran Airport to tell them that they were working on a movie to convince them to get on the flight to be able to escape with all the prisoners. So, that was a really big moment. And then finally, when Cosmos came, I was ready. That was really a great experience because we were a bit shorthanded. So, I got to do a little bit more than just concept art. I was doing some motion graphics, kind of pre-vis stuff. I even remember an early teaser trailer for Cosmos that we did where a buddy and I worked together and essentially made a whole shot out of something that I had illustrated. That was a huge thing for me. So, it was baby steps. https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/JPEG-image-scaled.jpg How did you hear about the College? What got you in tune with CCS to want to apply there? I had seen some examples of commercial illustration around – one of my best friends’ dads was a commercial illustrator in Dearborn, Gary Ciccarelli, and he had actually taught at CCS at one point. I felt like he was a good one to emulate because he had a successful career, worked on a bunch of magazines for Cream, which was super popular back in the day. I felt like maybe editorial illustration, commercial illustration was the in. I got really lucky knowing him because he was influential; he said, “well, you know the place to go is CCS.” I think I told him that I was considering other options, and he was like, “it’s right in your backyard.” So, I took his advice and it just ended up being the right fit, right move. https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/JPEG-image-2.jpg That’s really nice. Have you and Gary ever had the opportunity to talk in recent years with everything you’ve done? Every once in a while I get a text or something just saying, “I saw something that you’ve worked on.” He’s always been somebody in my corner. I feel like I’ve been really lucky to have him as sort of an early mentor. He even gave me some of my first little illustration gigs after school. I was kind of struggling to find work, and he was doing some children’s books, and he helped me out with that. So, I owe a lot to him. Switching gears a little bit, how do you feel CCS prepared you for the jobs that you’re doing today or for your career in general? It was very heavily traditional. Everything that I was doing at CCS was foundational, but even more than that, it was practical, oil painting and traditional media. I was lucky enough to have some professors that were into digital illustration and were fostering some of the first digital illustration courses around. You couldn’t find that anywhere. I remember working in the computer lab in the old illustration wing. That served me really well for the rest of my career. Not to mention, you know, the ability to not just draw and illustrate, but do graphic design and think about color and light in a certain way, all those fun fundamentals and the foundation was so strong. I pull from the fundamentals all the time. You are just always looking for complementary colors or how to make something pop with contrast, or the right composition to make you feel a certain way. That’s present in all of those core classes that I had with Dave Chow and Keith and everything that I learned from Gil Ashby. They’re all just super influential. https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/JPEG-image-3-scaled.jpg “I think to be a successful commercial artist, the collaboration actually comes before you even do any of the drawing.” –Michael Maher Jr. You can hear very clearly how passionate you are about everything that you’ve learned. What would you say you love the most about what you do, your job or what you’re working on? Oh man, it’s a roller coaster. The highs can be really, really high, you know? You can get a chance at designing a creature or a character, and for me, that was always the apex. Like, oh my god, I’m creating some character that’s going to be on screen, that’s going to be a living, breathing thing, that’s going to interact with characters. Vecna (from Netflix’s Stranger Things) was a huge one for me because even though it was a practical sculpt at first, it was the first real thinking character I got to do. That was so fun, just coming up with the design. I think I got a little overeager. I feel like I drew a couple hundred options for the brothers. Poor guys were looking at so many drafts of different options, and I didn’t want to leave anything on the table. Now, I think I would just trust my expertise and give them a few to pick from, but that was an important thing for me. That was something that I really cherish. The other thing would probably be doing storyboards for certain sequences that have become sort of iconic. Season 4 of Stranger Things, for example, when Max is in the mind layer, that red world and she’s running away from all the things falling out of the sky and heading towards the portal, and Kate Bush’s “Running Up That Hill” is playing, and all of that is happening, in my mind in a room where I’m just making these drawings. Then they put the drawings on a big board while they’re filming it and they literally cross off the drawings per shot. Then you have a sequence, and that becomes something that’s ingrained into what people think of when they think about the show. There have been so many sequences like that over the years that I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of. And it just starts with me reading the script and getting inspired and thinking, “What would be cool?” That’s me just making a little drawing. That’s where it starts. And then it’s on the screen. It’s crazy. https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/500_VECNA-POSED_cpt_V0002.jpg Do you feel like collaboration and teamwork is something that you enjoy when it comes to what you do? Yeah, totally. I think for commercial art, collaboration is mandatory. You’re going to have somebody who will give you an assignment, and then you’ll have to iterate. Very rarely is it the first thing that works, especially in film. You have the art department, you’re talking with visual effects, and you want the director to have what they would like. You want to think about what the actors are going to do and give them some space to do their thing on the day, and you have to think about the complexities of the shoot, how fast it’s going to be. I think to be a successful commercial artist, the collaboration actually comes before you even do any of the drawing. I would search around for other people’s opinions on what they would want and synthesize everyone’s needs, and try to make it as smooth as possible. It’s such a mandatory obligation to be collaborative and eventually it just feels secondhand. “Sometimes it’s not just the raw talent that gets you in the door. It’s equally important to be a little tenacious and go for what you want to do and not give up.” –Michael Maher Jr. I think it’s super helpful for current students in particular, but also potential students to understand duality and the need to be flexible. That trust within yourself and your decision-making, do you feel like that was innate within you, or do you think that that was something that you built over time? I think that’s definitely something you come to trust, because early on in any career, in any discipline, you feel uneasy when given a task because maybe there are too many options. It’s hard to narrow it down. It’s hard to know where to start. It’s hard to know what to focus on. Anything with repetition becomes easier, and you won’t have that uneasiness inside when you’re stepping into whatever you’re endeavoring to do. I think it’s good to have those feelings first. There’s a saying that in storyboarding, especially in film, you can draw any different camera angle from any different place, but why? Why are you drawing it from that angle? You have to consider emotion, and feeling, and storytelling, and all that stuff. I think you kind of find yourself asking why all the time, and because of that I think it makes you a better artist. No matter what discipline, what is the intention behind something, and how pure can you get that intention? How crystal clear can you make that thing that’s just under the surface of what you’re doing? That’s what gets to be really fun, when there’s stuff that people don’t even think about, and if someone looks at something that was shot or something that you did, and they get a feeling, but they don’t really know why. You know, that’s cool. https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/504_117-165_MacZAttack_stb_vM0011-Part-2_Page_05.jpg https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/504_117-165_MacZAttack_stb_vM0011-Part-2_Page_26.jpg More recently, you worked on Stranger Things. You had the opportunity to direct. Is that something that you’ve always known that you wanted to do as well? No, not at all. By Season 3, I think I had done probably a thousand storyboards for the show. There were times when I remember drawing until my hand would bleed. I would draw so much and for so long. You present often enough that there’s a familiarity there. After a while, they’re like, okay, you know the tone of the show. You’ve presented and worked with multiple directors who are working within the same sandbox. You know all the characters; sometimes you know a little bit more or are thinking of things that we aren’t thinking of, and you earn a little bit of trust. I was really lucky that they took that trust and asked me to direct a few shots. I remember in Season 3 the big monster in the mall, trapesing around, smashing things, going through the gap, hunting the kids, all of that was me with some guy and a beach ball running around as the mind flayer, taking those camera angles and eventually, working with the vendors to create the monster and put it into the shot. I’d have to take a lot of intention with my storyboards, knowing where the monster is going to be, how it’s going to be framed. It takes it out of that two-dimensional storyboard into an environment where all of a sudden, you’re in charge of the way the camera moves. That was my first foray into directing and, again, a huge leap for my career. I have a ton of thanks for the Duffer brothers for having that trust in me to allow me to take that leap. Later on that led to directing 500 extras running around and shooting an entire army platoon searching for things throughout the base. Then they had me work with the main cast, and by the end of Season 5, a lot of the end battle is my stuff. “You can listen to your gut, and it’ll tell you where to go.” –Michael Maher Jr. So, is this your ultimate goal, to do more of that? Is there something else that you want to try? I do truly love all the aspects of it, and even when offered the opportunity to do concept art or design, I cannot pass it up. It feels like a natural progression in my career to move to the next. For the students out there or the people thinking about going into this – I had to take a leap of faith, and I had to invest in myself, and I had to say, yeah, I can do that. Because I had done it previously, but not to the extent that they needed, and I felt like it was going to be a challenge. I think that ended up paying off quite a bit. Just like you have other people trusting you, it’s a moment of you showing yourself some trust, which is cool. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/504_117-165_MacZAttack_stb_vM0011-Part-2_Page_53.jpg https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/504_117-165_MacZAttack_stb_vM0011-Part-2_Page_56.jpg If you had any advice to share with current students or potential students, what would you say? One thing that I learned, not only through going to school, but even coming out of school, is that sometimes it’s not just the raw talent that gets you in the door. It’s equally important to be a little tenacious and go for what you want to do and not give up. I think that comes from a burning interest in doing something, which I was lucky enough to have. I was lucky to know relatively early on what I wanted to do. I wanted to draw, I wanted to illustrate. I wanted to tell stories in that way. And because I identified that early, I was able to take steps and build and work. Even though it wasn’t honed in exactly on storyboards, designing creatures, or directing from the get-go, I was always taking steps and building from the fundamentals, taking the courses at CCS – doing all the things that I could lean on later in design, and I think that really served me well. I don’t want to discourage any students who aren’t sure what they want to do and are kind of searching for something. For them, I would say, there’s an undeniable feeling you get when you’re doing something that feels really enticing. Like you could do this again and again, and maybe it’s not very obvious to you at first, but if time goes by and you’re in it, and you’re not noticing you’re in a state of flow, then I would pursue whatever that is. That has been the thing that I’ve propelled forward with, and it’s evolved over time. It doesn’t always have to be the one thing. You can listen to your gut, and it’ll tell you where to go. Interests change, you know? “The discipline and the skills and the trust you build in yourself and the creativity that you foster in yourself, the more you push it, the better life gets.” –Michael Maher Jr. Were there ever any moments of doubt? Did you ever think maybe this isn’t it for me? Oh my god. Yeah. How did you overcome that? When I came out of school in 2007, 2008 was the housing crisis. I didn’t always have work as an artist, so I would get other jobs here and there. Even if it was on the periphery, I always wanted to do something creative just to keep my mind in it. I worked at the DIA, for example. I heard about a job where they did these things called “Drawing in the Galleries.” They’d set up easels inside some of the galleries and kids would come through. You’d encourage the kids and the adults to sit down and draw what’s on the wall or draw something inside the museum. I sort of just stayed around it, always looking for opportunities to keep my mind thinking creatively. The longer you’re away from it, the more you start to get rusty, and it takes time to build the muscle again. That was just in the early part where there was some doubt and discovery, and it was difficult to stay creative, and I wasn’t on track in my career. But even when you are working in your career, you have these moments where you feel like all is lost. But the better you get at overcoming those challenges, the more you’ve had to hurdle things – that’s the tenacity that I’m talking about. That’s another skill to couple with your fundamentals that will serve you for the rest of your career. “A lot of my experience at CCS I look back on really fondly. The people that I met there, I keep in touch with, a lot of the teachers, what they told me, and what we worked on, I apply every day.” –Michael Maher Jr. What would you tell your younger self? Don’t be afraid to push it. Really push your skills and your discipline. A lot of stuff that you’ll do will not matter, but the discipline and the skills and the trust you build in yourself and the creativity that you foster in yourself, the more you push it, the better life gets. It took me a long time to realize that, and even at CCS, looking back, I wish I had maximized my potential, taken more courses in other places, and gotten more knowledge from different crafts when it was available to me. Now I’m doing not only digital illustration, but I was sculpting later in my career, and I never took a sculpting class at CCS. I was just so bummed about that. The amount of 3D modeling I do now, it’s insane. I only took one course in intro to Maya at CCS because I never expanded my interests while I was there. My regret would be that I didn’t try enough things or push the envelope on everything that I could creatively. When you have those electives, and you have a chance to take something different, you never know how it’ll serve you in the end. Is there a specific memory you have of when you came to CCS, whether it was your first visit, your first day, or your last day, that sticks out to you? Oh man, there’s a lot of those. I remember it very vividly. It was a really important step because, I was going to be an artist, you know, that’s huge. And even Robert Schefman’s (previous CCS Foundation Chair) first lecture is so daunting. It feels so scary. One of the first things he says – it’s been how many years I remember this like the back of my hand. He’s like, “You are probably one of the better artists in your small little community before coming to this school. Now you are basically just as good as everyone else. So, what’s going to make you a little bit better than everyone else? How are you going to advance?” And of course, he was trying to teach knowledge and expansion, and kind of scare the people out of there that don’t belong there, maybe. Taking that course and really listening to him and taking it to heart was a big deal. He probably doesn’t even know who I am. He would never even recognize me or anything – but that had a profound effect on me. You know, a lot of my experience at CCS I look back on really fondly. The people that I met there, I keep in touch with, a lot of the teachers, what they told me, and what we worked on, I apply every day. It was a really important thing for me to have been there when I was, and it was an important thing for me to launch out and do my own thing and go off to Los Angeles afterwards. I feel like I’m really lucky to have had the balance of learning from people in the place where I grew up and then exploring the world and finding what I wanted to do. https://www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/260129_943-scaled.jpg

Recent spotlights at international events like Art Basel Paris have drawn attention to Detroit’s vibrant art community, but for local artist Mario Moore, ’09 Illustration, the spotlight has always found him. Moore’s work can be found in established galleries and even in the permanent collection of the Detroit Institute of Arts. While his CV is a laundry list of artistic achievements, it is his deep connection to heritage, the arts, the City of Detroit and, above all else, his family that keep him humble and authentic.

We spoke to Moore during a private tour of the DIA – a core location to his artistic journey – and at his studio space in Detroit. Crediting his lifelong passion for the arts to his mother, CCS Admissions Assistant Director and alumna, Sabrina Nelson,‘91 Fine Arts, and his upbringing in the Detroit arts scene, his story is one of the manifestation of a life surrounded by creative ideation, expression and freedom … and with some Kendrick Lamar or Motown blasting in the background.

The Interview

Hi, Mario. It’s nice to be here with you and talk to you in your studio. Can you introduce yourself in a few words? My name is Mario Moore. I like to think of myself as just an artist. I think primarily people know me as a painter, but to me, the medium is only about the concept. So whatever medium I choose to use is the best way to kind of create the idea. So generally, I’m an artist.

www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/CB3A9764.jpg Mario Moore in his studio with his painting “Blues Man: Allie at Home.”

So speaking about the different types of mediums you work with, what are some of the bigger ideas behind your work?​ I think broadly, what my work has to do with is telling human stories. And it’s done so in a way that invites anybody – and I do mean anybody – people within the art world and outside of the art world, to basically step into the work. I think the level of realism that I use is one, a kind of invitation to people who see the work, and also a way for people to respond, but also interact. So it’s the best way I can tell human stories that deal with American history, deal with everyday lives, deal with heart subjects. But stories about humanity.

When did you start your artistic career, and can you share with us some details that influenced your decision to become an artist? I like to say that we are artists when we are kids. And from that perspective, I started to think about making work and being an artist since I was a child. But if we’re talking about, like, okay, you’re a professional now? I think the best way to think about having a career as an artist is to basically just begin and start. Like, having a degree in Illustration is amazing, but the concepts and ideas and the processes and putting together shows and exhibitions, you know, happened before college. And CCS just helped me along with that. But yeah, as a professional, my career started around 2012, 2013.

www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/DSC_4282-scaled.jpg Mario Moore with his mother, Sabrina Nelson, ’91 Fine Arts, sister, Sudani Shaah, ’25 Studio Art and Craft, and family.

So before that time, though, was there someone or something that inspired you to follow this artistic path?​ My mom, Sabrina Nelson, is an artist, and I just grew up in art, grew up in Detroit, going to all the art exhibitions, grew up with our artist friends, being in their studios, seeing them, basically turning an empty canvas into, you know, something that was incredible. I think that the magic was in that these friends of hers and she herself had these ideas and they just birthed them. And they came out of nowhere. I love the concept that you can create something and start something new. So, yeah, my mom has been a big inspiration to me in becoming an artist.

And with watching her career, her artistic path and her friends and their careers in the arts, and now you being an artist yourself, I’m sure you have noticed that there’s a lot of trials and tribulations along the way. What kind of challenges have you faced as an emerging visual artist when you think back to that time?​ Yeah, I think life, you know, in general, is going to have its valleys, it’s going to have its hills. It’s not just going to be an upward motion, but I think the best thing to do is to continue being confident in yourself, and also believing that you were meant to be an artist. But also being an artist is work. It’s not an easy thing, right? I think there’s something really dedicated and difficult about whether you have the money or not, or whether you have a regular job, maybe you’re working in a deli shop, whatever it is, but after that job, then you focus on your career, you focus on your art. For me, when it comes to, like, some of the difficulties, I think it was, you know, considering the different pathways I wanted to take, when it came to Illustration, I really was thinking about, oh, man, how am I going to make money? And, you know, I thought about children’s books, I thought about sports illustration. I thought about all those things. And then over time, I realized I didn’t like working for anyone. I didn’t like to create somebody else’s vision. And that ultimately led me to, like, oh, you really want to make your own work. So just following that pathway 100%, even if it wasn’t really fruitful at the beginning, you know.

“It’s trusting that you have something to say, trusting that you have the dedication to continue to do it and continue to say it. And that’s what has led me to where I am now, just believing in myself, which I think can be hard for a lot of artists.” –Mario Moore

I completely agree. But even through those challenges, you have achieved incredible success. So what is your definition of career success in the arts? I believe that career success for me is basically having my bills paid. Not having to worry about finances, but the most important thing is that I’m able to create and make what I want to make without any limitations. Granted, I’m blessed, I love it, that it’s showing in museums, I love that it’s in galleries, I love that. But for me, it’s the ability to make the work and create the work, and to be able to sustain that. It’s not about being the biggest artist. It’s not about being the most famous artist. It’s about just the ability to create your ideas and your concepts without limitations. That, to me, is a definition of success. If I can go to the studio every day and make what I want to make, oh, what? That’s everything. That’s everything.

www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/mario3-2.jpg Mario Moore in front of his painting “The Council” located at the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Well, speaking of having your work in museums, we know that you have work in the Detroit Institute of Arts, and through other interviews and knowing a little about your history, it’s a very important place to you. Can you touch upon what it means to have your work shown there? You know, I think it’s very special that I have work in the Detroit Institute of Arts. I have work in other museums around the U.S. and I love those institutions, but to be able to have work in the museum that you literally grew up in as a child, right? And you look and you see all the paintings on the walls and you imagine that one day it might be possible to have your work on those walls? Even though it seems, like, crazy to even think that way, but to imagine it and then to actually make it happen and see it is very, very fulfilling, but mind-blowing. To have it here, where I saw some of the first paintings I saw in my life, in a place where I used to draw in the galleries as a kid, a place where my dad met my mom when he was working as a security guard, and a place where my dad still works. So it’s awesome to see people going to look at my paintings in a way that I did when I was a kid looking at other people’s paintings, you know? It’s very special.

Continuing that thought about the DIA… I heard about an exciting collaboration. Can you tell me more about it? Yeah, so as an artist, I am one of those people, if you go with me to any museum around the world, they usually have audio tours. When I listen to the audio tours, my hope is that it adds some information to something that I didn’t know, especially when I think about people who are new to art or it might be their first time in a new museum. So I am doing a project with the DIA where I am giving an audio tour of all the works that I love in the museum, and of my own work. So it will be the Mario Moore tour of the DIA, which, I think, is kind of dope. It’s incredible.

www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/mario4.jpg Mario Moore painting in his studio in Detroit, Michigan.

Could you speak about a few of your favorite gallery spaces or works of art at the DIA that you are drawn to or inspired by, that maybe some people will be able to hear about from your perspective on the tour? Well, my favorite painting in the DIA is Artemisia Gentileschi’s painting, Judith and Her Maidservant with the Head of Holofernes. I love that painting because it’s the way she painted it, but it’s also the way in which she pushed forward the concepts and ideas of Caravaggio, and she did it better than he did. My favorite part about that piece is the head at the bottom of the canvas. Like, when you see it, it’s like got the texture, the brush strokes. There’s greens and grays, all painted in there. But it’s just the luminosity that you see from that painting. And then the other space that I really love is the Dutch galleries. I’m a Rembrandt fan. So Rembrandt to me is like the best person who does illumination of light. And when I think about my own work, it’s always something that I’m trying to kind of imbue into the work is like this idea of light. And Rembrandt is great at directing you into the places he wants you to look at. So these are also a part of the audio tour. And then there’s the one Velázquez painting in the collection. It’s amazing that Detroit has a Velázquez painting. And to me, when I talk about painters that influence me, painters that I look at, I feel like Diego Velázquez was one of the first modern painters in history. And also, I would call him probably the best painter ever.

So, thinking about if you mentored younger artists or CCS students who are beginning their art careers, what single most important piece of advice would you offer them? I think the single most important advice that I would offer a young artist – a CCS artist – is to understand that there is not one pathway. There are many options for you, as far as a career in the arts. And I think a lot of times, for younger artists and also dealing with parents and family members who know nothing about art, they’re limited in their perception of what they can do with the talent that they have. So for me, it’s like, always remain open, especially when you get to CCS. Take as many classes as possible in every department. Develop all the skills that you need in other spaces, like take a glass class, take sculpture, take all of these things, because you never know how they will play in your practice. You never know what will happen after you graduate. And when you have so many skills developed, it’s a way to tap into another side of your brain. Like recently, a couple of years ago, I was taking a stone sculpting class and it was so interesting to me because usually when I’m in the studio, I need music, whether I’m doing a clay sculpture or whether I’m painting or I’m drawing. But when I was doing stone sculpture, it felt really meditative. I didn’t need any music. One, because you can’t hear it at all. But also, it just kind of created another kind of creative pathway in my mind. So when I went back to painting and I went back to drawing, it just kind of brought something new to me. I think that’s the best advice I can give is to just be open.

“I believe that career success for me is basically having my bills paid. Not having to worry about finances, but the most important thing is that I’m able to create and make what I want to make without any limitations.” –Mario Moore

Speaking of that playlist, what’s your go-to? Who’s your go-to artist? Kendrick Lamar lately has been my go-to artist in the studio, but I’m also like a super Detroit guy; Motown is heavy, it’s always playing in here. I love techno too. So I listen to DJ YG a lot. I listen to Dwele. Yeah, it’s a lot of different music, and it also depends on how I’m feeling. Because also as an artist, the one thing that I think a lot of people focus on is skill set, right? Which is incredibly important. Things that you need to learn, things that I think you should have. But the one thing I’m looking for in my work is a feeling. The feeling of whatever I’m making is more important than the way the thing was put together, right? So music really plays a part in that. That’s also the question you get all the time. How do you know when the work is done? I don’t know. You can work on any piece of artwork for the rest of your life if you want. For me, the most important thing is: does it have the feeling I want? When it has the feeling, I know it’s done.

www.ccsdetroit.edu/wp-content/uploads/2025/12/CB3A9754.jpg Mario Moore in his studio in Detroit, Michigan.

That’s so interesting. Okay, last question. What are you most looking forward to working on next? I have a passion project. And I think every artist has passion projects. Things or ideas that are so big, you have no money for them. But you’re determined to make it happen. I am most excited about doing a large outdoor public sculpture of Malcolm X. That’s the thing that I’m most excited about right now. Again, no money involved, no funders, no nothing. But that’s what I’m working towards, to do a large outdoor public sculpture of Malcolm X for the city of Detroit, and in granite, I believe, when it’s done – because it will get done – it’ll be the first outdoor, full-figure, public sculpture of Malcolm X in the U.S. There is not one.

You can learn more about the CCS Illustration department here: https://www.ccscdetroit.edu/academics/undergraduate-programs/illustration/. You can listen to Mario Moore’s Detroit Institute of Arts audio guide here: https://guides.bloombergconnects.org/en-US/guide/detroitInstituteOfArts/tour/6757571e-c3ea-46f8-88c8-26a12c2750f0.