Maria was born and raised in Pasadena, CA. She spent much of her time in Temple City with her artist grandparents, who were pivotal in her becoming an artist. Her grandfather was a sculptor; her grandmother was a painter. As a child, Maria began working in the studio with her grandfather. During her career, she has developed over 1,000 paintings. Maria attended Cornish College of the Arts for her B.F.A.  Maria initiated her graduate work with New York University and achieved a Masters in International Business with a published thesis on cause related marketing from Schiller International University in Heidelberg, Germany. When she was twenty-two, Maria received a MacArthur Award nomination. During the first twenty-three years of her career,  Maria’s primary medium was oils and collage on gallery stretched canvas. After a car accident in 2018, she needed several surgeries to regain the use of her arms and hands.  This required her to reconsider how she would continue to work and what materials  would allow her to express herself fully, while still engaging nature. During her recovery periods, she read about Paul Stamets and Merlin Sheldrake. In addition, Louie Schwartzberg’s film Fantastic Fungi was pivotal in her shift in materials and approach to her practice. Over the last thee years, she  has fully engaged her practice despite her permanent disability in her arms and hands. Since 2021,  she has created 44 new works. As she recently explained to a cohort: “It’s the first time in my life I am just doing and making without trying to have my work do something or be something other than the experience and expression of nature.”

Today, Maria grows her paintings and sculptures from mycelium, the same material that fruits mushrooms. Her painting palette includes fruits, flowers, mushrooms, and other botanical materials. Her mission as an artist is to inspire others to use healthier materials for a healthier world. Understanding that we are a part of something much larger than human life, she finds reverence for the natural world, which is at the centerpiece of each work she now creates. For 26 years, her work has shown with cultural institutions, including recent pocket exhibitions with the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California. Her solo exhibition with the California State Capitol highlighted youth leadership. She is inspired by Greta Thunberg, Malala, and other young ladies who have dedicated their lives to fostering visibility for some of the world’s most pressing issues. Maria has achieved a number of grants that include The Gottlieb Foundation Emergency Grant, 2022; The Fantastic Fungi Global Summit Scholarship, 2021; Arts and Accessibility Grant, UCLA 2020; and The Center for Cultural Innovation, 2020. She has traveled through seventeen countries, living in both Thailand and Germany. She now resides in Indianapolis.