Margarita Paz-Pedro
Ceramicist. Muralist. Teacher.
Born in Albuquerque, raised in Las Cruces and with family in Laguna Pueblo, Margarita has ties across New Mexico. Her multi-ethnic background (Mexican-American, Laguna Pueblo & Santa Clara Pueblo) is core to her artmaking. She is a ceramic artist, teacher, organizer and muralist. She received her BFA with an emphasis in Ceramics in 2003 from the University of Colorado-Boulder. Then a MA in Art Education in 2008 at the University of New Mexico. In 2006, while at UNM, she was able to do an apprenticeship abroad in Paris, France with an internationally known ceramicist, Madame Fance Franck for five months. In 2009, she travelled to Japan for a ceramics exploration trip as a part of an Arita Porcelain class at UNM. In early 2020, she was an Artist in Residence at Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, where she is currently in the MFA Studio Arts program.
Her work comes from how time, place, culture and life intersect in her Mexican-American, Laguna Pueblo and Santa Clara Pueblo background within New Mexico. A lot of what she puts into her work is about identity, as a person with deep roots in New Mexico.