We were lucky to catch up with Maria DeAngelo recently and have shared our conversation below.
Maria, appreciate you joining us today. Can you share an important lesson you learned in a prior job that’s helped you in your career afterwards?
I was a public school teacher for many years, and that experience taught me lessons that I bring to the studio each day. As an educator, collaboration and communication are important skills to guide students. Teaching is a creative profession where I learned to meet each student where they were and help them to grow in a positive learning environment. I believe that one of the most important skills an educator models is being a life long learner. As a studio artist, learning and pushing my practice is crucial.
As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?
I grew up in the Capital Region of New York, and I have always wanted to be an artist. I attended The New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University to follow my passion for art and teaching. Following college I pursued teaching for many years while also creating and showing my art. Now, as a studio artist I create in many mediums including murals, installation, painting, printmaking, jewelry and mixed media. I love to share art with others, and continue to teach workshops and classes around the region.
One of my favorite teaching experiences is to offer “Make & Takes” These free experiences were created when I was an Artist in Residence at Arlene’s Artist Materials in Albany through a grant from the Art Center of the Capital Region. Make & Takes are art sessions that share a technique or medium with participants in a supportive environment with the guidance of an artist. I am really proud of this community art opportunity, and having met so many people excited to share their love of art making. I am currently an Artist Mentor at Arlene’s. Each mentor helps to guide and support an artist in their personal goals from learning a new medium, preparing for a show or organizing their studio practice.
Another aspect of my studio work is sharing my art by being a vendor at local art markets and submitting to shows to sell my work.
What do you find most rewarding about being a creative?
One of the most rewarding aspects of being an artist is sharing art making with others, and building community. I believe in the importance of art in our lives. There are social, physical and emotional benefits to creating art. In a supportive environment, creating art can help to support and express identity and foster communication. I find it rewarding to be able to create the opportunities for others to experience making art. Having students continue to connect outside of workshops and show their art is so rewarding. Over the past few years students have gone on to enter art shows, sell their work at art markets and post their joy in creating.
What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?
The goal driving my creative journey is grounded in being a life long learner and daily practice. I enjoy being a visual problem solver and playing with materials. As an art student at Alfred University, I learned to approach new materials in two stages. First learn what the material it meant to do, learn it’s properties and uses. Next you push it further to see what you can discover. My goal is pretty straight forward, to continue to learn and create in new ways. I want to grow my practice and share what I learn. I enter the studio each day with a daily practice. I am currently in my fifth year of making a small work of art each day, in addition to my larger studio pieces. 365 days of making tiny paintings, mini prints, paintings on the head of pennies, and then, this past year 365 abstracts on book pages. To be an artist you have to show up, my goal is to keep showing up and being excited to learn.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.artyladymsd.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artyladymsd
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/artyladymsd
