Andrea Pichaida

For the love, passion and joy of working with clay. For the never-ending inspiration of nature and the human soul. For the love of life. My art is inspired by my life journey as a woman who grew up without a voice during dictatorship in my native Chile; and by the strong love of nature, filled with beautiful shapes, forms, lines, patterns, texture, colors and movement. These inspirations combined work as one with my hands and ideas in a constant dialog that invites me to create suggestive pieces that aim to speak a universal language, letting emotions emerge within each person. Through my art I am able to let me inner voices, the ones that didn’t have words for so many years, come out to the world and with these objects I want to remind everybody the importance to look inside, to cherish their own existence. My clay pieces can relate to vessels and are a metaphor for a women’s world filled with stories that talk about life, and places of peace, just like a seed pod presents itself in nature. Clay, this wonderful element that comes from mother earth, is my medium. I approach the building of a sculpture in a very intuitive and playful way, letting the process, the discovery be always open to an adventure and a challenge to myself as well as the material. I aim for those little nuances that make a difference, I can shape, punch, push, carve, texture and color for hours. Message and craft have to work together to create a unique voice.

I grew up in Chile in a home filled with wonderful women; mother, grandmothers, sisters; father, and brother who did their best to guide us through tough political times in which dreams and words weren’t allowed. Still, my childhood evolved in a loving and nurturing family My sister and I were the first ones in the family to venture into college where I earned my Master's Degree in Fine Arts from the Pontifical Catholic University in 1987. A new world opened up, I never looked back. I could finally have a voice through my art and my own being as a woman. One of my most rewarding jobs has been my teaching career for 17 years which started in 1993 as an Associate Professor at the Catholic University in Chile. Teaching taught me the importance and meaning of making my art. 2010 was the year I moved from Chile to Santa Fe, NM. A whole new and unknown chapter of my life started. I opened my private clay studio where my passion for sculpting and my love for teaching have continued. During these 14 years, I have been blessed to get to know and get involved in an amazing art community that has guided and invited me to be part of this art scene, joining the New Mexico Potter and Clay Artist as well as the New Mexico Women in the Arts. My art has been widely exhibited, awarded, and collected throughout the world. Being selected into “12 New Mexico Artists to Know Now-2020”, Southwest Contemporary Magazine. That same year I got accepted into Tierra Mar Gallery, Santa Fe.

3-D, Ceramics, Sculpture