Fall 2015 International Artist-in-Residence, Marie Lorenz, answers questions about her work, her life, and her time at Artpace.

Where are you from?

29 Palms, CA

When did your interest in art begin? Was there a defining moment for you that made you realize you wanted to be an artist?

I guess I decided in High School – when friends started thinking about college and stuff. But working on ceramics this month reminded me of a defining moment that happened much earlier. I was about seven, and I made an entire dollhouse out of clay. There was really great mud in the backyard, the entire hill behind our house was made of rich, red clay. I made little chairs and dressers and a bed. I made these little clay dolls that had string running through their bodies so they were jointed almost like marionettes. I made all their furniture, and I put it in a cardboard box to bike over to my friend’s house. Well you can imagine what happened. The bike tipped over and sent the whole box into the street. It was all unfired clay – just mud really, so it turned to dust instantly. I remember just sitting on the curb crying. But I must not have learned my lesson because this past week, I biked back from the shop carrying unfired ceramics in a cardboard box.

Give three words that describe Artpace to you.

The Best Place!

Tell us a little about your work.

Well right now the studio is a huge mess, but I HOPE that in two weeks there will be something to look at. There will be a video on one side that tells the story of a piece of garbage on its way to the ocean. And on the other side, three sculptures that tell a story in a different way. For those I am using debris that I collected out at the beach and casting it into macrame nets.

How do you find inspiration?

I like biking around or paddling around in a boat and looking at the landscape. That has really helped during the time that I was here.