All photography appearing on this page are by Jim McHugh
The Studio
The urban environment of Los Angeles is as much of a teacher and constant source of inspiration as the countryside of England where Maria Greenshields-Ziman spent her childhood. The studio is a constant work in progress, the walls pinned with textures, leaves, woven grasses, and specimens of all kinds – all of which make their way into the work. To see the artist in her studio is to understand her process, how sculptural sensibilities are the foundation of her visual language, with hours of layering and experimenting binding together technique and meaning. For Greenshields-Ziman nothing is left unexplored in the steps to making a new work and her studio is alive with the birth, collision, and confluence of various concepts forming simultaneously.
Inspired by shadows cast as the sun moves across the sky or night shadows projected through dark windows by the nocturnal lights of the city. These layered works fall over the viewer, capturing the feeling of being completely enveloped by nature, the shadows stretching to touch one another creating a canopy of light and dark. Created through the collage of found paper, cardboard, and various plants layered in delicate overlapping silhouettes with spray paint and intervened with charcoal.
