Meet Maria Valentina Sheets | Art Conservator and Glass Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Maria Valentina Sheets and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Maria Valentina, what habits do you feel play an important role in your life?
(I addressed RISK last go round)
I have two labrador pups and thus, they have me up pre dawn to feed. I would say “success” is a term relative to a persons actions day by day. So, I do not let preceding success or failure determine my daily moves. I always have a plan of action regardless of a preceding good or bad day in the studio, and believe me there are plenty of bad days…cracks in the kiln….paint that fired wrong. But I just bury any fear/anxiety/ hesitance, and move into the plan of action. For me the “process of working” is success, not everyone’s approval. Although, I believe the fruits of these actions combine to create work that eventually is appreciated by others. But to get there, I need to be learning and being fully present in what I am doing.
Additionally, if I have something going on in my life that makes it hard to focus on content, I work on technique. I don’t beat myself up about not being clever. I let the ideas flow naturally. Once you plant the seed in your mind, they will come. My consistence in practice has led to my skill level and any successfull jobs/work I have had but I never forget the “art world” is fickle.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I have been a glass painter for years. Typically changing up a traditional craft with socio-political content. I am a member of Core and Valkarie Gallery and now Scottish glass is opening up a showroom that will be open to the public in the fall. Thus, I have been on a pretty rigid production schedule and it has forced me to work every day, and often long hours to complete the shows in summer and fall and ongoing commercial work with Scottish. This is not a hobby now, it is my livelihood.

I helped create fabrications for art icon Judy Chicago for the last two years in conjunction with Scottish Glass. These were glass paintings made with airbrushing that required numerous masking techniques and absolutely flawless surfaces. We went through a battery of paint, color and glass tests. The rigorousness of the collaboration process with Judy, working with her at her studio for weeks, as well as the transportation back and forth of glass from studio to studio, was beyond intense. In my early career, post graduation, I wrote her fan mail and bought her books. So having the opportunity to work with her was absolutely life/process altering. The work is now in museums, as she tours the world. It has been inspirational to see her success and I am happy she is alive to experience it as so many women artists were not.

Unfortunately, on the tail end of the second project with Judy Chicago, we had a major family tragedy. I focused on recovery of myself and family. Thje idea of coming up with a “theme” for a series of work seemed trite. Instead of cancelling my coming show, I pushed my way into a new technique called “Vitreonics” introduced by artists Tim Carey(formerly of Judson Studio) and Narcissus Quagliata in an independant film produced by Justin Monroe called “Holy Frit”. I decided to use this technique to honor my friends and family in a portrait series. The process involves similar skills I have in glass painting but adding fused glass layering that combined to create ghost like images floating in layers of thick colored glass. I would be producing these from a place of vulnerability and decided to show that process as I healed. I created short videos of how I made all 12 portraits that are available to view on my Maria Sheets You Tube channel as well as are streaming on a “Nimbus” screen in the exhibit itself.
The exhibit , “Trial by Fire: Paintings in the Vitreonic Fused Glass Technique” will be up until July 7th at Core Gallery and I will continue this experimentation into my fall show at Valkarie in November 2024.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We are blessed to have a good view from out house of the Foothills and are near hiking excursions around Evergreen and Conifer. I think most guests want to hang out at our house with the deer, elk, fox and birds. I will teach them how to do a fused glass, Ukrainian Egg or painted glass art project that I ship to them afterwards. Food wise there is too many to list, but I encourage a concert at Red Rocks, tour of first Friday arts galleries, and Mt Blue Sky drive picnic which never fails to please.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I would like to thank my husband and family, fellow artists in my gallery(Valkarie and Core) networks, my best buddy Jamie Rigsby(conservator) who has to hear me drone on about my studio/life activities, and Scottish Glass for keeping me in commercial work.

Website: https://www.mariasheetsglassworks.com

Instagram: mariavalentinasheets

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Image Credits
Maria Sheets