Mari was born in 1971 in Budapest. She always liked to expand her knowledge so once she has finished the Secondary School of Fine and Applied Arts as an textile designer, she continued her studies at the Decorator School and finally at the Moholy-Nagy University of Art and Design Budapest she graduated as a typographer in 1997. After her education she had worked as an art director for ten years at McCann Erickson Budapest Advertising Agency while she was involved in several group- and personal exhibitions. In 2002 her childrenbook illustrator career has started off. Since then, a lot of books with her illustrations have been published in Hungary, including some in French, Polish, German and Turkish languages.
Her list of awards consists of four times the Beautiful Hungarian Book Awards with Fresh ink! (Csimota-Pozsonyi Pagony, 2006), Once upon a time in the Land of Tales (General Press, 2008), London Teddy Bears (Csimota, 2013), Gufo on the Feast of Trees (Csimota, 2016), Hungarian IBBY Children’s Book of the Year Award with the On the Edge of the Morning Star (Magvető, 2007) and the Special Prize of Ministry of National Resources with the The Fairy Who Could See in the Dark (Pozsonyi Pagony, 2009).
In 2014 she represented Hungary as a children book illustrator in Berlin at ˮViva literatura! Festival of Children’s Literatures from Central and Eastern Europe” in the Alexanderhaus at Alexanderplatz.
Being an innovative and experimenting person Mari likes to experience different technics and forms of arts. She designed all the puppets and the innovative scenery for the Three Little Pigs And The Wolfs puppet show, which was very well received by both the audience and the profession (played over 250 times); and was also acknowledged by several international awards.
Mari is being a regular guest of libraries for a long while, to tell stories by kamishibai and to do fun activites with kids - especially creative coloring and painting.
Her favorite tool is acrylic and the montage technique that was used for example in the Little Red Riding Hood and the Great Magician kamishibai or in the Gufo series.
Humour, innovation, playfulness and experimentation are permanent companions to her works.
As she says: ‘During my work my aim is to create a virtual playground by my illustrations and the compositions with typos, so everyone can find the favourite game without age limitations. Where everyone – both small and big ones - can find treasures for themselves. If I manage to get smiles on faces when looking through my books, my goal has been reached and it makes me happy.‘