Le Grand Prix du Carré Hermès

Book Worm

Up North

School of Fish

Double Orb

Mother Ship

Earmuffs

Bear Hug

In 2019, legendary fashion company Hermès hosted its first international scarf design competition. Le Grand Prix du Carré Hermès was free and open to all types of artistic talents. The winning design would be purchased and reproduced for a future Hermès collection. The contest ran through a series of phases between March 8, 2019 - March 1, 2020 and upwards of 11,000 creative talents submitted their designs for consideration. 

Pamela Diaz Martinez and former high school student Leigh Sarembock collaborated to enter several designs into Le Grand Prix du Carré Hermès. Martinez and Sarembock individually chose photos/pieces from their own portfolios before coming together to select images that complimented each other. Using computer graphics, the photos were then juxtaposed to create a fluid design.  

Included below is the statement that Martinez and Sarembock wrote for Hermès:

Martinez’s innumerable ticks of pastel powder sit atop the page waiting for a passerby to whisk them into a fresh arrangement. Initially, erasing creates a negative, which reads like a positive. For those that wait, eventually the “drawing” will reverse what the eye perceives ultimately creating a form of wind caught in a moment. Present are palettes of eminent green, infallible yellows and pinks most commonly observed as astutely commanding. Martinez’s gentle imposition surrounds the interior space merging into Sarembock’s compositions of lush domestic textures filled with docile publications. Sarembock forms hauntingly empty space devoid of humanity while simultaneously inviting the imperial, connoisseur of design. With ease and elegance Sarembock will rotate to construct a poetic feeling of place for the humble academic looking to slink into a comfortable position for the night. Together, Martinez and Sarembock’s conceptual designs hypothesize a future that is neither here nor recognizable, yet embryonic and familiar. 

Leigh Sarembock, a South African-American interior designer and Pamela Diaz Martinez, a Mexican-American studio artist and instructor first collaborated in 2007. The former high school teacher and student duo met in Irvine, California to forge an interminable friendship and design team. Sarembock remarks about working with her then high school teacher, Ms. Martinez, “I wanted to soak up all information, techniques as much as possible but also felt extremely comfortable to chat and express opinions as though you were my counterpart. It became this comfort level-we were able to form a bond that surpassed a teacher student hierarchy.”

Trinity Magazine Cover

The Anglican Diocese of Pittsburgh unites thousands of Anglicans from different congregations. This diocese has numerous parishes in Western Pennsylvania along with parishes in other locations in the US and Mexico. Along with bringing Christians together through sermons and gatherings, the diocese also regularly publishes Trinity Magazine. Trinity staff includes a permanent editorial team along with contributors from clergy and congregation members. The magazine is distributed in print and digitally to members of the diocese. 

Pamela Diaz Martinez’s artwork, titled “Observed and Recorded Permutations of the Holy Spirit XVI (OARPOTHS XVI)” was featured on the cover of the spring / Holy Spirit edition of Trinity. The Holy Spirit edition centers around the Holy Spirit and His presence and interaction with people. The theme of this edition aligns with the inspiration behind Martinez’s OARPOTHS series, thus Trinity chose Martinez’s “OARPOTHS XVI” to visually represent the Holy Spirit’s work. “OARPOTHS XVI” was made with oil, pastel, graphite, and cotton on paper mounted onto a board that was 19.5 x 29 inches. This piece was made during Martinez’s International Artists Residency in Orvieto, Italy in 2018. During this residency, Martinez met studio mate Joanne Martin, who also happened to be a deacon. Martin initially recommended Martinez’s work only for the cover of Trinity. To Martinez’s surprise, when she received the magazine she noticed that the entire design, such as the headers and the text colors, of the magazine centered around her work.

Zine for Westminster Christian Emphasis Week

The Westminster Schools, more commonly known as Westminster, is a private school for students (K-12) located in Atlanta, Georgia. Westminster is a nondenominational Christian school, teaching students about religion and values through courses, activities, and clubs. Every year, Westminster hosts Christian Emphasis Week: a school week devoted to connecting students and faculty with Christian teaching and values. The school schedule is altered during this week to make time for students and faculty to learn and understand religious lessons that relate to their lives. The Westminster Lower School reverend asked Pamela Diaz Martinez to give a talk during Christian Emphasis Week and to create a zine. Martinez spoke in front of the Lower School about her conversion to Christianity. She also self-published her second zine, titled “The End, I Mean, The Beginning,” which shared the story of how religion changed her life. Copies of her zine were distributed to over 500 kids and adults. Martinez also shared a blank zine so others could illustrate their own stories to share with friends and family. She hand drew all the pages in the zine with her personal illustration style, specifically for this event. 

BrightHouse + Mint

BrightHouse is a global creative consultancy that helps corporations and companies to find their purpose and the best ways to expand it. While the BrightHouse team is busy with creative branding, BrightHouse firmly believes that art can help better thoughts and interactions. To bring more art into their lives, BrightHouse partnered with MINT, a non-profit art organization. For several months in a rotation, BrightHouse features artists from MINT by exhibiting their work in its office space. At the end of the rotation, BrightHouse purchases a piece from the exhibition to fund local artists and add to MINT’s permanent collection. For two months, four framed Holy Spirit pieces were featured in one of the rotating exhibitions. The exhibition was celebrated with a private reception event, hosted in the BrightHouse office space at Ponce City Market, exclusive to the artists and their guests. Instead of being a traditional work space, the BrightHouse office has a very playful atmosphere with round bed swings, board games, and sleeping pods. Thus, Martinez’s artwork was exhibited in an untraditional yet amazing gallery space.

Boston Consulting Group

In 2018, Pamela Diaz Martinez got the opportunity to work with an art consultant for the new Boston Consulting Group (BCG) office space. Martinez met art consultant Dot Moye during a SeekATL event. After connecting, Moye reached out to Martinez for a creative partnership as BCG was looking to feature Atlanta artists in their office. Moye looked through Martinez’s artwork and selected four pieces from the El Viento series to furnish the brand new Boston Consulting Company office in Atlanta. Martinez had the opportunity to work with Doug Honabach, a custom furniture designer at Houzz, to design a back piece to support the drawings. Together, they created a wooden wedge, rather than a traditional frame, to compliment and back the drawings.

The four selected drawings were originally a part of the El Viento series, a collection of 29 works based on Martinez’s interpretation of the first and second verses of the Bible. All of the pieces in the El Viento series were created during Martinez’s Hannacc Residence for Arts and Creativity in Barcelona, Spain in 2017. Martinez’s typical artist process was dramatically altered for this series as she had to figure out how to create art that could also be stored and transported in a suitcase across the ocean. Instead of drawing freehanded, Martinez experimented with digital media and stencils. Martinez found inspiration for her art by sourcing images of modern and brutalist architecture. The found images were then distorted in Photoshop to create a desirable composition. Once the images were formed to her liking, Martinez traced the computer screen to make and cut out a stencil. The stencils were placed onto black card stock and colored over by pastels on cotton balls. Upon completion, these works were brought back to Atlanta and are now hanging in the hallways of the BCG office.