Hola friends! Welcome to my website.

I am a human using words & images to express, inspire, and educate.

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Hi, I am Sylvia Marina Martinez, a Chicana/Honduran-American artist and designer from Los Angeles with a passion for research and history. My art is inspired by nature, music, and human rights, and Chicano/Mexican folk culture. After graduating with a BA in Cultural Anthropology and then an MPH, I worked as a researcher in academia and public health for ten years. I later left that field to work in the Folk Music field with Smithsonian Folkways doing marketing and public relations. Later, that led to me spending nine years at the Grammy Awards managing the American Roots (folk/blues/traditional) categories.


I started the music blog rootnotemusic.com in 2009.


In 2015, I left the Grammys to start The Cozy Casita, which specialized in handcrafted wood and tile trays with a nod to Mexican tile. My work was featured on several design blogs and gift guides.


In 2018, I survived a stroke that rendered me partially paralyzed, which made the tile work extremely difficult. I fell in love with mixed media collage art and graphic design as my previous physically demanding work was not viable with the hemiplegia.


My career as an artist came full circle when I did the cover art for Dom Flemons’ 2023 Grammy-nominated Folk album, Traveling Wildfire, which was put out on the Smithsonian Folkways label.


With the election in 2024, I started a second blog focused on the curent political cultural situation, called Field Notes: A CatraChicana Between Worlds.

I love helping people tell their stories and realize a creative vision. In terms of collage art & design, I have worked with clients to help them create custom heartfelt artistic collages using their own photos. I love working with people’s personal and family photos and other memorabilia. With degrees in Cultural Anthropology and Public Health and ten years working in the music business, I’m a curious, passionate, lifelong learner and do a lot of research for every project, making sure every detail is imbued with meaning and heart.



*Every project starts with research about the era, location, and mood.

*My process includes traditional collage techniques and then digital design in Adobe Creative Cloud (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.).

*BA in Cultural Anthropology from UC Berkeley

*MPH from Columbia University

*10 years in the roots music industry