Directory & Information
Maria Vitagliano
Director, School of Design; Professor, Art Foundation (Faculty)
Phone: 617-928-4650; ch #125
E-mail: mfvitagliano@mountida.edu
Primary Department: School of Design
Education
Pratt Institute, M.F.A.,
Newton College of the Sacred Heart, B.A.,
Maria Vitagliano received her Master of Fine Arts Degree from Pratt Institute in New York where she majored in painting and minored in ceramics. While completing her degree, she worked as an assistant instructor in the pottery department at Pratt. Professor Vitagliano continued working in clay at the MIT Student Art Association where she taught drawing and clay workshops and learned the raku method of glazing and firing pottery pieces. She continued to work in clay making large raku fired sculptural pieces at the Radcliffe Pottery Studio. These larger sculptures were made in parts and assembled after the firing and cleaning process was complete. She has researched primitive firing methods, used before gas and electric kilns became popular, and has built wood burning and coal burning kilns and outdoor pit firing kilns. She completed a series of small clay figures inspired by Greek mythology using these methods.
In addition to her work with clay, Professor Vitagliano has continued to make paintings and is proficient in a number of styles from non-objective to representational. She has been inspired by the work of the artist Paul Gauguin and has researched his work and life travelling to Tahiti and the Marquesas to view the environment where he worked. She has also researched Tahitan culture, history and art as well as Anasazi Indian culture and pottery.
Professor Vitagliano teaches Basic Drawing and Advanced Drawing and believes that success in creating a representational drawing requires learning to stream together a variety of drawing approaches combined with complete understanding of the nature of the picture plane.
Departments
- School of Design