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Maria Loram | Episode 1071
Maria Loram is a ceramic artist, born in Russia, and is now based in California. Art has been Maria’s lifelong companion, and despite a detour into linguistics at Moscow State University and a subsequent move to LA, she has now built a career in private tutoring. Maria’s core fascination with art’s power to explore and understand the world remained dormant yet undiminished. The turning point came with a divorce, which serendipitously guided Maria back to art, Eastern philosophies, and meditation practice. In 2022, a pottery wheel from Facebook marked the rebirth of her artistic journey through the medium of ceramics. Diving into classes and workshops led by renowned ceramicists like Tortus and Moondobang, Maria has embraced the endless possibilities of shape, texture, and color.
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Do you see yourself as an artist?
Yes.
As you see yourself as an artist and you are working with ceramics what is it that allows a piece to be elevated to art?
I think it is a wonderful question that I don’t quite know that answer to but I would like to. I think first of all, if it’s sculptural or nonfunctional I think it’s a lot easier to call it art, while I would love the functional ceramic pieces to be called art and I think if there is a deep concept in it or some kind of unique way of executing the idea and the functionality of the piece then that is considered to be art.
So it’s the why behind the work that makes it elevated?
I think the difficulty of this question lies not in what the object is but what art is and what craft is. The definition of the word art and craft and I think it kind of reveals the very deep subjectivity of the term art. Because abstract art doesn’t even have to have the why behind it, but it’s the lack of why that makes it art.
Why do moon jars capture your heart?
I think subconsciously it’s the aestheticists and the perfection of the spherical shape. But I do put a lot of meaning to it and I connect it to the cosmos and the non-duality. I like space and all the objects there are round and spherical and made by the gravitational force. And at the same time the non-duality and the idea that all the vessels are vessels, they are carrying something, but they are empty to begin with and there’s the surface that different, but the vessels are still similar. If that makes sense.
How important was the summer residency that you just did?
I think it was very important. It gave me a lot of actual skills in working with wild clay and forage materials as well as wood firing. I think it just connects to my philosophy and to my approach to ceramics and to the materiality of it really deeply. So I am going to continue all of it.
Where do you the journey of ceramics going for you?
I think about it a lot. I think ceramics for me right now is not only the object. It’s the whole field with which I can express myself in various ways. It could be an online course. It could be a local business like the actual community studio. I could be a book about glazes. It could be so many different things, but I hope that I will work through my objects in different directions. One is interior design based and decorative and the other one is what could be called art. So something very innovative and unique. It’s far but it’s getting there.
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Contact
loramceramics.com
Instagram: @loram.ceramics