Check out Maru López’s Artwork

Today we’d like to introduce you to Maru López.

Maru, we’d love to hear your story and how you got to where you are today both personally and as an artist.
I am a contemporary jeweler. I was born in the Caribbean, in the island of Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States. As a kid, I lived in New York City for a few years while my dad studied and then returned to the island where I lived until my mid-twenties. I studied my BA and some grad school at the University of Puerto Rico where I majored in Latin American History. I had always done some type of art, taking every imaginable after-school class in different things, but went the time to choose a major came I didn´t consider art. I chose my other passion that is reading and books! While doing my masters, I decided to take a basic sewing class to do for myself some blouses I had being imagining. I had so much fun doing them that I decided to change course and apply to fashion school in New York. I went to Parson School of Design where I got an AAS in Fashion Design and then return home. There I juggled with a part-time job in a historical archive and the start of a small clothing line. My years in fashion were pretty fun but they made me restless, and I kept looking for another creative outlet. And then I found jewelry, contemporary jewelry to be exact. When I sat in a jeweler´s bench for the first time in a continuing education class, I knew I had found what I was looking for! So I decided to study it properly and left for Florence, Italy where I studied for four years and taught for one in a small contemporary jewelry school called Alchimia Scuola di Gioielleria Contemporanea. I was sure I would eventually return home, but I met an American sushi chef that had lived there for twelve years. We started dating, and we decided to move to San Diego where he had lived for some years before Europe. And that´s how six years ago I landed in San Diego where I live in Golden Hill and have a small jewelry studio in Barrio Logan. Although we aren´t sure if wanderlust will take us somewhere else, for the time being, we are very happy to call San Diego our home. In this city, we have created a nice community of friends and love the diversity of its inhabitants and neighborhoods as well as its luminous skies.

We’d love to hear more about your art. What do you do you do and why and what do you hope others will take away from your work?
When I first got interested in jewelry, it was its process with what I first fell in love. To be able to saw, hammer and use fire to create a beautiful piece for someone to were seemed truly magical and I loved all the hammering and soldering. I could not at that moment imagine the vast possibilities of the field. In jewelry, one can go so many ways, from dainty fine jewelry to beadwork, wirework or cast work and so much more. I chose the contemporary jewelry world. I work with a lot of alternative materials and approach the medium in a very playful way. The school I attended was very experimental and very conceptual, teaching students to research and explore materials more in the way an art school would teach sculpture than a traditional jewelry school. After I left school and arrive back in the United States, I knew that I wanted to do pieces that were light and wearable but that allowed me to experiment and play around. I had worked a bit with resin and pigments in school and decided to continue experimenting with those materials. I now make bold, colorful pieces in brass and silver to which I attach resin stones that I color, hand cast and carve. I also make pieces which I hand paint with pigments of color creating tiny abstract paintings on the metal.

I am inspired by many things. From books to music to the color of the sunset, some pebbles on the street, the plate in a restaurant or some awesome exhibit in a museum. The extraordinary of the everyday things that surround us that is where I mostly find my ideas and then from there it´s play. Such an important part of my jewelry practice is allowing myself space for playing with materials and exploring possibilities. Many pieces are just prototypes and don´t seem to directly translate to the body of work that I sell and exhibit, but they’re tightly bound. These experiments are made with the freedom, carefreeness, and joy that I try to imbue all my work. The joy I feel while making, and that is what I which my work evokes to those who wear it and those that see it being worn.

The stereotype of a starving artist scares away many potentially talented artists from pursuing art – any advice or thoughts about how to deal with the financial concerns an aspiring artist might be concerned about?
There are different ways people can focus on their work. I until recently had a part-time job to be able to pay my bills and debts, just recently I felt my jewelry was at a place I could take the risk of doing it full time. Get back to me in a couple of months, and I’ll tell you if it has worked!!!

The part-time job way isn’t for everybody, and I understand that. I know some grants exist out there and that could be a way for some. There is really no easy way for any artistic endeavor, and it gets every day more difficult as the cost of living continues to rise. I do believe that if one is really passionate about creating one carries on despite the horrible day jobs and the tiredness of doing it only in one’s spare time. And then with perseverance and a lot of hard work one does see results and the possibility of actually living form one’s art. Granted it is, I believe, easier with jewelry than with other mediums, so I’ve been lucky. And there’s always teaching once you excel at your medium, which is in itself a great way of continuing to learn while sharing your knowledge with others!

I’d say don’t quit and look for the community of other artists it always helps to collaborate and have a group of people to bounce ideas on how to navigate this and others aspects of the creative life.

Do you have any events or exhibitions coming up? Where would one go to see more of your work? How can people support you and your artwork?
Here in San Diego people can see and buy my work at Shop Mingei which is the store of the Mingei International Museum. They’re temporarily at Liberty Station while the museum is renovated but will eventually return to their location at Balboa Park. Also at Gold Leaf in South Park and Lux Art Institute in Encinitas. People can also visit me at my studio in Barrio Logan. My work is also in LA at Freehand Gallery, in Boston at the Society of Arts and Crafts and in Ellsworth, Maine at Kotcraft. As well as in Puerto Rico in Tereques.

I also have at the moment a piece traveling through some galleries in Argentina as part of an exhibit of Latin American contemporary jewelers.

Anyone that wants to keep up with my work or buy pieces can visit my webpage at www.marieugenialopez.com or my Instagram @marugenia2

Contact Info:

• Address: 2151 Logan Ave.
  Studio G
  San Diego, CA
• Website: www.marieugenialopez.com
• Phone: 6197876154
• Email: info@mariaeugenialopez.com
• Instagram: @marugenia2
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/marulopezjewelry

Image Credit:
All photos taken by myself , except the personal photo which was taken by Eric Stedman.

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