Gustavo Martinez

artist event

Saturday, September 11
11 am – 4 pm

Demonstration begins at noon, workshop 1-3 pm
Bellevue Botanical Gardens

A public demonstration throughout the day of the artist’s process used to create a sculpture that is mostly composed of wheel thrown forms. This will be done in the open for passerby to engage at the level of their comfort. Drop in at your own comfort to watch, ask questions.

El Paso, TX

Tacoma, Wa

San Jose, Ca

On view at the Bellevue Botanical Garden Gathering Space event on 09/11

Gustavo Martinez was born in Guadalajara, Mexico. He earned a BFA from San Jose State University with a minor in Mexican American Studies and an MFA from the University of Washington in 2011 and was awarded the Parnassus Teaching with Excellence award.

Martinez is passionate about connecting with communities through ceramics and Indigenous traditions. He practices being one with nature by honoring his cultural heritage through traditional Indigenous ceremonies with the Hueco Tanks All Nations Sundance community in El Paso, Texas. Working as a production consultant at a ceramic water filter factory in Guatemala reminded Gustavo of the importance of caring for water. Martinez traveled to the Usambara Mountains of Tanzania with La Paz International Foundation to build a ceramic kiln in a woman’s pottery village. That same year he experienced the amazing journey of summiting Mount Kilimanjaro. These experiences have heavily influenced Gustavo’s sculptures and world outlook.

Martinez teaches ceramics at higher education institutions in the greater Seattle area, and is a part of the summer faculty at the Sitka Fine Arts Camp in Sitka, Alaska where he teaches ceramics to middle and high school students. Gustavo Martinez currently resides between El Paso, Texas, Tacoma, Washington, and San Jose, California.

The Guardian Within

As an artist and an individual, I owe a lot to ceramics. Discovering an innate ability to create with clay changed my life. Creative research led me to reconnecting to my rich cultural heritage of Mexico. In the process of collaborating with the material of earth I align with my breath to connect with an intuitive creative flow. In that same process, discovery of several sides of myself takes place. Creating with clay connects me to an ancient practice and ancestral energy. The completed artwork is essentially an embodiment with an intention. Guardians, Warriors, and Sages are ongoing characters with zoomorphic and anthropomorphic features that I use to express very personal stories which can also be seen as universal experiences.

I will be giving a public demonstration of the process I use to create a sculpture that is mostly composed of wheel-thrown forms. This will be done in the open for passerby to engage in at the level of their comfort.