For María, living, interpreting, and making are endlessly intertwined in a cycle of art and daily life. She creates functional ware for everyday life. María intuitively paints the surface of her pottery and these gestural elements in return inform her sculptures. Within the bounds of pottery, she seeks to elevate mundane rituals into extraordinary moments. Through her work she seeks to reconcile the impressions of her memory, recreating forms, textures, and ideas that have touched her. Ordinary and oddly familiar objects explore the relationship between line, color, texture, and form.
Her studio practice investigates identity, craft, and ritual at the same time, addressing her own biography in relationship to her Venezuelan upbringing and permanent relocation to the US. María’s experience living in both countries has given her a different perspective of the world. She was brought up in the capital of Venezuela a culturally rich but politically conflicting country.
As an educator, she aspires to provide her students a balanced experience of the technical and conceptual possibilities of ceramics. She has a commitment to education based upon sincere desire of seeing students succeed.
María received a Master of Fine Arts in Ceramics from Temple University, Tyler School of Art and a BFA from the University of South Florida. Born in Kansas, she lived through her late teens in Venezuela and currently resides in Philadelphia. Teaching artist by day and ceramicist by night, when María is not throwing or coil-building pots in her basement studio she works for the Clay Studio's outreach program as a community engagement teaching artist.
