Stephanie Maria Series List
Part allegory and part portraiture, these paintings speak of the masks we wear to claim our identity. Just like a portrait from the eighteenth century, these platters represent an idealized life. Porcelain china with delicate floral patterns are a metaphor and the desire for a pretty life of happy families, lovely home decor and Holiday meals on heirloom dinnerware.
As a second generation Mexican American I question my own identity and long for a connection to a culture that seems lost to me. For my family, who assimilated with pride, the ultimate goal was to be as American as possible. I am looking behind the bone-white china and expressing what's lost, broken or something closer to my personal reality and my ancestors’ history.
Beyond this personal meaning, I am also expressing loss of an environment where oceans had an abundance of sea-life and global warming was inconceivable, but even amidst our precarious world there is great beauty and love.
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Click on a series below to view the collection:
