Patricia Saldarriaga

Artist Bio:

started my art degree in college by accident. I had planned on being a teacher but now have fine art background in Sculpture and Photography. After college, I was living in a small apartment and there was no room for my welding studio. I wanted to make art again. I started painting on found wood from construction sites but seemed to enjoy large-scale painting and I outgrew my apartment. I found a community ceramic studio in Colorado while looking for studio space and the turn to ceramics happened. Making with my hands was home for me, however, just a few months later my mom passed suddenly. There was a large block of time where it was too painful to do what I truly loved, art. I turned to music for the healing. I sang in a band from Evergreen and worked on songwriting for many years.

The drive to make art was always there, but the time that had passed left a scar of doubt in my mind. I decided, with the support of my husband, to try my hand at school again. Got started on a Design degree, then came baby. Our little one became the focus for me but it affected me in a way that I can only now see in my art. I turned half of my tiny one-car garage into a ceramic studio and have now been working steadily on ceramics for 9 years. My ceramics had been very neutral over the years.

I wanted to add more color and I used my paintings to develop a style I had hope to put on my ceramics. But all it did was inspire me to paint again. I spent 2020 working on large-scale paintings, which I still don’t have room for, but I have an understanding family. Being an artist, at my core, I will make art whenever I possibly can. The world changes around us so fast. I’m a slower person by nature so I use art-making to make sense of this fast-moving world grabbing images as I go.

Art is that one raw honest moment I can have with somebody who views my artwork. My art is really just having a connection with somebody and helping remind them of something in their environment or their world that hopefully brings the viewer joy. Slowing down and enjoying the beauty is all I hope for.

Theme Description:

As an artist, I’ve had to overcome all kinds of obstacles. But we as a community in Colorado have had overcome something the entire world has had to deal with. The one thing that resonated the most with me was that Colorado has always been important and valuable because of the nature that surrounds us in this incredible state. I’m fortunate enough to be able to call Fraser home and I’ve seen how the resilience of the human spirit is reawakened every time we get the chance to go outside and play. All the incredible activities that we get to do in Fraser lend themselves to supporting our human spirit as we go through these trying times.

Webiste: macanastudio.com

Instagram: @macanastudio