Biography
My Story
Born and raised in a small town near Bogota-Colombia, my childhood in Sopó gave me a perspective of community and identity. The long walks in the mountains, accompanied by my cousins, imprinted my delight for contemplation. As teenager, I moved to Bogota, which brought me a fascination for cultural and artistic expression. At the same time, I had the joy of participating in different missionary trips that led me to know the vast richness of Colombia. As an adult, I set out in Canada, where I defined the meaning of family and with my husband wrote the childhood of our three children. Canada allowed me to learn a new language and connect with people from multiple cultures around the world, each full of stories, community and their own interpretation of life and aesthetics. I plan to continue contemplating others, the exuberant world that embraces us and the art that our hands produce as a continuum of that exuberance.
Artist Statement
Natalia Lopez is a Colombian Industrial Designer based in Ontario, Canada, who discovered ceramics as a medium to communicate wonder. She is currently finishing her degree in Ceramics at Sheridan College. Her work responds to a need to connect with raw clay, its natural colours and textures, and its tendency to remind us of our connection to nature. Respecting the state of the material and exalting its natural beauty, she has developed a series of functional and sculptural objects, which she calls "Alive objects." Objects that convey hope, activate connectivity and transcend objecthood. Objects that are in balance with their environment and with the population that welcomes them. Objects that stimulate a sense of wonder through their harmonious exuberance. Through the use of "real material": earth, the elemental, clay texture and direct forms of association, her work explores the idea of balance and rhythm between the natural and what we produce.