Today we’d like to introduce you to Victoria Demarco.
Hi Victoria, thanks for sharing your story with us. To start, maybe you can tell our readers some of your backstory.
It started with me making a giant mushroom hat for my own amusement, and now I’m a trendsetter being flown across the country, showing the work and organizing events. But if I go back further than just the beginning of my mushroom girl trend, I’ve been trying to make the world more whimsical since I was a child.
When I was a young teenager, me and my two best friends, Alexandria and Jenny, dressed in elaborate wood spirit fawn costumes to delight children with little gifts and perhaps have a good scowl at the loggers who were cutting down trees. We came across a parking lot at the base of a trail and saw a large bus of children pulling out. We waved and chased it, which delighted the children as we were in full costume. Then, the van stopped, and the doors opened, and we spent the next hour answering hundreds of questions about our fairy lives and playing with the children. All three of us were so monumentally inspired by the interaction that we pivoted our entire lives, changing what we wanted to do and going into the arts.
This new part of the story began with a gigantic mushroom hat, four foot across and larger than my body, that I wore to a local festival. The trend exploded. Hundreds of people started making similar hats, and it spread across the world. I get fan art from faraway countries and am constantly tagged in pictures of people who made their own mushroom hat. It’s snowballed into me running mushroom-themed gatherings, whimsical immersive art events, setting up galleries, and selling custom mushroom hats online.
My end goal is whimsy. I plan on purchasing the property from which to run these events. I want to build an entirely different reality where people can see more plainly the things I do.
Would you say it’s been a smooth road, and if not what are some of the biggest challenges you’ve faced along the way?
I am entirely self-trained. I work a 9-6 job and develop this on the weekends and at night. It’s been non-stop, constant effort, but I can finally feel it beginning to soar.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
I am known for starting the mushroom girl trend. Of course, the concept of mushroom fairies has been around since at least the 1800s, but pictures of my work went viral and spawned hundreds of others, and now it’s spread across the world. I love all my mushroom babies and sometimes get tagged with whimsical names like ‘Mother of Mushrooms’ and ‘First of her Spore’, which is hilarious and I love it.
Contact Info:
- Website: Paracosmcreations.com
- Instagram: www.Instagram.com/the_phaneron_fae
Image Credits
Personal photo by Reagan JP of West Destiny Drive, Others photos by: Red Hat Model: Erin White Orange Hat Model: Courtney Duncan Yellow Hat Model: Alexandria Nause Green Hat Model: Katie Bailey Purple Hat Model: Elaine Friend
