About
Macana Studio was conceived 20+ years ago when Patricia and I got married in Maine.
We were recent graduates from the same art program in Texas and wanted to create a space to showcase our art.
Patricia Saldarriaga
The short story is I needed something to do, the long story, well that's a bit of a walkabout.
I wandered into a ceramic studio around 1999 as I worked on a BFA degree in Texas. I fell in love with the earthy material, the smell of the wood kiln and how calm the clay made me feel. However, the semesters did not line up and instead I majored in Sculpture and minored in Photography. Years later I was living in a small apartment and there was no room for my welding studio or power tools. I wanted to make art again. I found myself wandering into a community ceramic studio in Colorado. The love was still there, however, just a few months later my mom passed suddenly. There was a large block of time where it was too painful to do what I truly loved, art. I turned to music for the healing. I sang in a band and worked on songwriting for many years. The drive to make art was always there, but the time that had passed left a scar of doubt in my mind. I decided, with the support of my husband, to try my hand at school again. Got started on a Design degree, then came baby. Our little one became the focus for me in so many ways. It affected me in a way that I can only now see in my art.
So once again I wandered back into a ceramic studio, my own. I have now been working steadily on ceramics for four years. I recently turned forty, got a kiln, and now play in clay everyday I can in my one car garage in Morrison, Colorado. As a family we spend as much time outside as we can. The mountains are wonderful backdrops to our life. My ceramics are a direct reflection of that natural inspiration. Made with my hands that have experienced a lot, looked over with my eyes that have seen so much and loved with my heart that has felt it all. I pour my soul into every beloved object I make. Each treasure is one of a kind. Clay has what we Potters call memory. If you bend or dent the clay, even if you repair the visual flaw, the clay will show it. I embrace this wonderful phenomenon allowing each object to be slightly different then the next.
I am Patricia, I'm the proud artist of Macana Studio.
Pedro Saldarriaga
Born and raised in Medellín, Colombia, Pedro Saldarriaga discovered his artistic inclinations early, nurtured by his mother through ceramic and drawing classes. After high school, he moved to Texas on an athletic scholarship for cycling, ultimately earning a Bachelor of Arts in Commercial Art with a minor in Photography.
Following college, Pedro lived in Spain, racing competitively for two seasons before returning to the United States and settling in Colorado, which he now calls home. He divides his time between his work as a Creative Director and painting in his home studio in Morrison.
Pedro’s body of work has evolved through multiple phases, often gravitating toward figurative scenes infused with surreal and dreamlike elements like the portraits of commuters on wheelless bicycles or rodeo riders suspended in drifting clouds. A close friend once described his work as liminal: capturing subjects in the in-between, where boundaries blur and tension, anticipation, and reverie coexist.