Mária Moldovan was born and raised in Romania. She holds a BFA in ceramics from the University of Visual arts and Design, Cluj Napoca, Romania. Ceramic art is the perfect medium for her to explore colours and three-dimensional shapes at the same time.
After graduating from the university she was working as an art teacher and as a children's book illustrator for many years and continuously created ceramic works for personal and group exhibitions.
Maria moved with her family in Canada in 2013.
Currently she is a full time studio artist living in Arnprior. She is also teaching ceramics at the Ottawa School of Art diploma program.
Artist Statement
The act of creation is a journey for me. A constant moving from outside to inside and vice versa. To create shape, body and skin for shapeless, incomprehensible ideas, feelings and memories it's a process full of joy and sometimes full with struggle.
I mostly work with handbuilding techniques and finishing the ceramic surface with colours it's a very important part of my pieces. I apply a process which combines the over layered under-glazes, decorative patterns and surfaces covered with glazes. I also like to keep lot of calm, white areas to let the work breath. There is an interesting play in the process of finding and keeping the balance between these four components of the surface finish.
In my sculptures, I often combine different elements: shapes, body parts which in real life never would show up together. Using the freedom of the creative process I find the connection points and I create a new meaning for these elements.
