Meet Maria Greenshields-Ziman | Artist & Designer

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maria Greenshields-Ziman and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maria, how has your background shaped the person you are today?
I come from a long line of successful visual artists which, being a defiant child, had a contradictory effect on me – I wanted to be anything but an artist! Rather than follow family tradition, I had disparate visions of being either an actor or an academic. However as I got older I soon came to realize that my talents definitely did not lie in either of those directions and I learned to embrace and enjoy the strengths and abilities I found I did have. My father quietly encouraged me and was the gentle catalyst in helping me develop as an artist. I saw how he closely observed the world around him, and by witnessing his sheer devotion and commitment to his art, I learnt the principles of art theory that are now the basis of my own practice, both as an artist and designer. I eventually went on to study art and am eternally grateful I did so. Another large part of what impacts who I am today is my upbringing on a dairy farm in a very rural and beautiful part of Southwest England. The sensibility of this environment has never left me and continues to inform the type of work I create. I interpret and explore the complex forms and patterns of the natural world using a variety of mediums and formats.

 Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

I think of myself as primarily an artist but under that same umbrella, I am also an interior designer. After years of dreaming and procrastinating I finally remodeled our family house 14 years ago.

This led to other numerous design opportunities, and I became the Lead Designer on a host of projects. These include single family homes, commercial spaces, restaurants, coffee shops, etc. Designing a space is like creating an enormous work of art, I am always conscious of the way functionality fuses with color, texture, volume and ambiance to create a space that is both practicable and beautiful to live and work in.

My abilities as a sculptor help me interpret the 2 dimensional into 3 dimensional volume and see environment in a holistic way.

I think one of the biggest challenges I have faced in my career as an artist was balancing motherhood and staying relevant as a contemporary artist as far as visibility. This is probably very non PC but it is my truth and one I’m sure many other parents out there can relate to. By the time our 2nd child came along, I found, due mainly to lack of time and energy, that my art practice was put on the back burner. At that time, I was working with steel as my primary medium and even though we converted our garage to a steel shop, it proved to be difficult to work in that space with young kids around. In retrospect I should have pivoted to another medium, but even though I managed to spend a few hours or so every week in the studio I found that the mental space needed for thinking about what I was making just wasn’t available to me.
By the time my 3rd child was in nursery school I had rented an offsite studio and was able to spend the morning hours in a quiet space. From there I started experimenting with and exploring a wider variety of materials and mediums, which in turn reignited my career.
To this day I relish quiet and tranquility in my studio unless I’m working in steel of course, a material I still enjoy using.

If I were to offer any advice, I would say never underestimate the value of a mistake. I’ve found this to be true not only in a broader life lesson sort of way, but very specifically in the process of making and creating. In my fine art practice I hardly ever start out with a set in stone idea of how a piece will turn out. I experiment and in doing so make mistakes that often lead me down unexpected avenues. I love that sense of discovery and feel it keeps the work fresh and vibrant. Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
I’d definitely recommend visiting the plethora of prestigious museums our city has to offer: Hauser & Wirth, Hammer Museum, The Broad, The Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles (ICALA) and Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) to name a few. The Venice Canals are always a great spot to explore, and I love hiking up Inspiration Point. Since there’s so many great restaurants, I’ll narrow it down to my favorites in Venice & Santa Monica: Gjelina, Wallflower & Cobi’s. Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
It’s impossible to choose one or just a few… I am indebted to an irreplaceable team of diversely talented people (office staff, architects, contractors, fabricators, artisans, to name a few…) who help me day to day as I run all the various facets of my life. I wear many different hats throughout the day so I am eternally grateful for the people that keep me in line and help me manage jumping back and forth between my different roles.

Many of my team members and our work can be seen at:
www.Artattherendon.com / www.therendongallery.com / www.mariagreenshields-ziman.com / www.designmgz.com / www.rendonmedia.com

Website: www.mariagreenshields-ziman.com / www.designmgz.com

Instagram: @mariagreenshieldsziman / @design.mgz

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@ArtMGZ

Image Credits
Mauricio Hoyos, Katya Grozovskaya, Ralph Ziman, Michelle Homami, Paul Duran-Lemos