Capture by hand what captures your heart

Marci Jarog is a portrait artist, painter, and illustrator with a love for human expression, detail, and whimsy. She creates compelling visual stories using paper, pencil, and the occasional odd object.

Portraits

A woman with brown hair and a tattoo on her chest, playing a string instrument.

Sketch of a woman wearing a wide-brimmed hat, sunglasses, and a blouse, with a bag strap over her shoulder.

Paintings

I create custom portraits that capture personality and intrigue, working in both color and black-and-white, and in styles ranging from hyperrealistic to ephemeral.

Commission a portrait

A woman with long brown hair and a white bow relaxing in a meadow at sunset, reading a book surrounded by flowers and dandelions.

A colorful, radial pattern with stripes of pink, red, and beige converging at a central point.

Menu art, recipe illustrations, cookbooks, and prints are included in my collection of food art. I create “family cookbooks” showcasing recipes and artifacts that reflect a family’s culture. My cookbooks are hand illustrated, expertly bound, and filled with family photos, memories, and living histories.

A watercolor painting of a glass of yellow beverage with bubbles, garnished with a slice of lime on the rim.

Design a cookbook

A person with makeup holding a device to their face, with a focus on their eyes, lips, and nose, and blonde hair.

A painting of a person walking down a road with power lines on either side. The sky is filled with birds flying away.

A colorful abstract art composition featuring multiple overlapping circles filled with radiating pie-slice segments in various bright colors.

My paintings stem from my love of form, color, and symbolism. My collections span artistic styles - from abstract “color wheels,” to realistic objects, to earthy landscapes. I like to work from a client’s desired aesthetic, theme, and idea samples to create pieces that capture mood or tell a story.

A detailed pencil sketch of a young girl smiling, with curly hair and wearing a sleeveless top.

Food Art

Commission a Painting

Drawing of orange persimmons with green leaves and brown branches on white background.

Unique decor and larger-scale installations comprise my three-dimensional practice. I draw upon found objects and unlikely materials to create dramatic pieces that transform a space and create points of intrigue.

Ceiling light fixture with white globe shades and black metal arms.

Objects and Oddities

Illustration of a whole eggplant and a slice of eggplant, showing purple skin and white flesh with tiny seeds.

Drawing of a peach with an ear of corn, a tomato, and green leaves on a white background.

Step inside this house…

I began to sketch portraits when I had my first child, Eva, in 2014. Her baby expressions and soft features were a delight to study and added a measure of calm to an otherwise frenetic mothering routine.

I now have three children who consume my time and imagination. Their creative inspiration has turned our home into a living art studio, strewn with creative projects serious, experimental, and sometimes just silly - from portraits of loved ones to post-religious polyptychs to sculptures of giant gumdrops.

With my children now in school, I am able to spend time creating not just for myself and my family but also for others. I love to learn about the artistic vision of my clients and their sources of meaning making. I collaborate with them to design pieces that add points of reflection, beauty, and story line to their homes and daily lives.

I am ever so grateful for the many people who have spurred me on in this creative journey. Family, friends, teachers from years past, strangers at the coffee shop who noticed a half-baked sketch, parents at my children’s school who invited me into hallway decorations, an Instagram “like” from a distant friend - your encouragements were the inspiration that brought this dream to life.

A woman with long blonde hair and glasses smiling at the camera. In the background, there is a gallery wall with multiple framed sketches of faces.

Contact Me

Interested in commissioning a piece? Kindly share your details, and I will reach out to you shortly. I look forward to the opportunity to connect.

marci@marcijarog.com
(773) 480-9451