Maria Corazon “Mari” Fernandez is a teacher by profession and has taught for fifteen long years in the Philippines. She finished a Two-Year Associate Course in Architectural Drafting, graduated, B.S. in Industrial Education, Major in Architectural Drafting and finished her Master’s Degree, M.A. in General Science Education with her Thesis, “ Teacher’s Awareness in Environmental Issues and Problems and Factors that Affect Their Awareness Level.”
While she taught full-time in the elementary school during daytime, she also taught part time to college drafting students during night time and in the weekends, she worked part time for Lucky Seven Construction as a Drafting person.
MariCor first came to the US as an Exchange Student and as a Participant at the University of Minnesota, School of Social Work, under the program called, Twin Cities International Program in 1993-1994. While with the program, she engaged in other school activities such as International Classroom Connection and volunteered to teach Philippine culture in one of the elementary schools in St. Paul, MN. She was featured in a cover page of the programs’ Annual Report that same year. She also wrote a news story about the program, and was published on a local tabloid, Asian Pages. After the program, she went back to the Philippines and spent several years of teaching.
Maricor is a Visual Artist and loves to draw and paints in her spare time. She loves environment and discreetly an environmental activist, so most of her artworks depict nature. Her love for arts leveraged when she came over to the US in the year 2000 and attended training courses in Designing Effective Websites and Internet Writing Markets at CUNY and training courses in Broadcast Media for Television and also took courses on Films at Schoolof Visual Arts (SVA).
In 2012, she became a Certified Independent Producer for Queens Public Television (QPTV), a Public Access Television in Queens, New York and in 2013, created and founded Empyre Media Productions, a TV show highlighting Arts and Artists.
After a year, MariCor conceptualized an idea of creating another TV show on Queens Public Television, (QPTV), specifically designed for the Filipino-American community. With the collaborative efforts of four other influential women in the community, the First Fil-Am TV Talk Show in New York and the Tri-State Area came into existence.
In 2015, MariCor collaborated with Fil Ideas Corp., and Genix Productions and Co-Produced another first
TV Magazine Show dubbed as, “I Am Pinoy, Proud Ako.”
MariCor’s recent endeavor is founding, Empyre Media Production’s “ArtistSpace” project which is a short doc series on the web showcasing emerging artists and artists in general, providing them platform to highlight their artistry and creativity.
She is also a member of the Society of Pilipino-American Artists (SPAA) in New York and covered for Empyre Media Productions, their Annual Art Exhibit, “Territory: Unlimited,” held at Topaz Arts, Inc., in Woodside, New York.
Maricor’s greatest influencer is her spiritual teacher who once quoted a saying, “The Rains of God’s mercy cannot gather on mountaintops of pride but flow easily into Valleys of Humbleness.” A great lesson about Life which then relates to Art.
“Life is a great big canvas, throw all the paint you can on it.” (Danny Kaye)
