Laurel Harrison - Publicist
A Moment in the Making
(A Look at the Artist, Marita Brake)
By Laurel Harrison
Her namesake was a nun who fled the convent to marry a millionaire, only to divorce him a few months later - the final divorce agreement being no vow of poverty.
An auspicious beginning, one would think, for a child born to first generation Lithuanians who had her christened, Marita Jon Stankitis (the Brake came later.)
Incapacitating shyness and sensitivity, coupled with a childhood of fragile health led her to create a stage full of stories and songs. By her early teens, Brake had begun to perform them on tiny, coffeehouse stages, and in church basements.
She peopled her life with aspiring artists and writers, the bohemian literati of Springfield, Illinois in the late '60s, such as it was.
"At the time, I was in my very early teens. I tended to be around introspective, creative thinkers who nurtured me and whose influence is still very evident in everything I do."
It was this freedom to create that lit the flame of longing: longing to become a performer, songwriter, poet, author, artist, and playwright.
"I am pretty much open to any vehicle that speaks to me. It might come in the form of recording projects, a melting pot of genre-free music that orchestrates my musical disposition. Really, I love all forms of art-making, whether I am working on a new stage play (The Kotex Chronicles), my EEKO Kat comic strip, or "Instant Ancestors," which is a compendium of slightly offbeat relative that exist only in my mind."
"They're all parts of me," she quips. "I suppose that to focus on one project and help nurture it alone would be ideal, but all of my projects are so deeply imbedded in my psyche that it is too hard to ferret them out. So I tend to bounce from one thing to another - taking up more time to finish one project, but it is how I work and has been my modus operandi for the past few years."
"Most people know me for my music: the CDs, high profile gigs (Carnegie Hall), and film/T.V. tracks. But really, I feel my greatest fulfillment is in the bits and pieces of their creation, mostly done at home in my studio. That's where I am happiest, whether I am working on an art piece, writing, or whimsical cartoon cats."
I am in my element when I am in my studio bed, pillows piled high with cats sleeping and a roaring fire. Or perhaps meditating on an idea in my walled garden. The muse courts me in solitary silence. It is what makes my heart soar, giving me wings to capture a moment in the making - which, to me, is the ultimate creative act."