Minto Group | Clay and Colour | Maria Moldovan

Biography

Maria Moldovan was born in Romania. She started her visual education in the High School of Arts, Sf. Gheorghe, her hometown, in a class specialized in painting. After 4 years of painting she has chosen to study ceramic art at the University of Arts and Design in Cluj Napoca. She made this decision because she was attracted by three-dimensional art but she couldn’t give up the colors. So it seemed to be the perfect solution to have sculpture and painting at the same time.

Painting and ceramic art fluctuates through her life since then. There are longer periods of time dedicated for painting and then for ceramic art.

Starting from 2008 she is involdved in projects related to childrens illustration as well. There are five books so far published with her illustrations.

Maria mooved with her family in Canada in 2013.

Education

1997-2002 – Bachelor degree at the University of Visual Arts and Design, ceramic departament, Cluj Napoca, Romania

1994-1997 – School of Arts, Sfintu Gheorghe, painting departament, Romania

1988-1994 – „Mikes Kelemen” Highschool, foreign languages, Romania

Professional Memberships

Member of the Ottawa Guild of Potters since 2015

Member of the National Capital Network of Sculptors since 2017

Member of the U.A.P.R since 2003 – „Professional Visual Artists’ Union from Romania”

Member of the „Association of illustrators from Romania” since 2012

Artist Statement

Creating art works for me is a journey. A constant moving from outside to inside and vice-versa; It is about the process of connecting the outside world to my inner world. I can have as a starting point, an element from the surrounding world, from a landscape or some object or living creature and I start to work with it; it goes through me. I transform it into something different.

I moved to Canada in 2013. Leaving a well-known space and searching for anchor points in a new space is a challenging process. This searching has been a driving force in my creative work in the past few years. Exploring a new world, new dimensions can be inspiring and the process of searching leads us in unknown outer and inside spaces as well.

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 dimensions, I find the connection points and I create a new meaning for these elements.

I created ceramic sculptures with the similar symbols, color palettes what I used lately in my paintings. It is the connection between the bi-dimensional and three-dimensional visual language using the theme of connected elements.