Maria Sarmiento is a passionate, versatile, highly motivated artist and educator with extensive experience teaching sculpture in Fine Arts and Art Foundations in design universities. A native of Colombia and resident of Atlanta, Georgia, Maria’s work is inspired by nature and ancient cultures (pre-historic and pre-Colombian), and evokes spirituality as well as a sense of transcendence.

Maria loves art! As a young person, she was influenced by her cousin’s work as an illustrator and painter, and intuitively Maria knew that she was destined to become an artist. Maria is inspired by a number of unconventional, contemporary, and abstract artists, including Antoni Gaudi and Santiago Calatrava both from Spain and Henry Moore, sculptor and artist from England.

Maria describes her work as a medium to express inner spiritual growth. She connects with common symbols of cultures and explores emerging forms in diverse materials, and transforms traditional symbols into her own. Her sculptural art includes different methods such as cast metals, Paltiya, cement, steel, paper, and recycled materials. Maria’s background includes broad knowledge and expertise in artistic glass, from stained, to cast and fused.

Voids and negative spaces play a fundamental role in Maria’s work, projecting the spiritual presence and additional vertical connection between the earth and sky. Such examples of her work have been juried in several outdoor exhibitions and today are located at the Hudgens Center for the Arts in Duluth, Georgia. Maria’s artwork was displayed in an exhibition by national invitation to the Jacoby Arts Center in Alton, Illinois.

Recognized as a passionate educator, lifelong advocate of continued learning and advancement, and prolific, creative artist.  Currently teaching workshops at national and local level. Maria's past teaching assignments include Kennesaw State University, Georgia State University, The Art Institute of Atlanta and Metro Academic Studies.

Family and community are very important to Maria. As such, her long-term goal is to increase the scale of her work by integrating it into urban and rural landscapes, embedding the experience of sacredness or ritual places while attracting residents and visitors, sparking meaningful conversations, and improving struggling communities.

Maria received her Master of Fine Arts degree in Sculpture from Georgia State University in Atlanta, Georgia and her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Universidad de Bogota Jorge Tadeo Lozano in Bogota, Colombia. She is a member of the Society of American Mosaic Artists and the leadership appointments include Board of Directors and Chair of the Recognition Committee and Social Media for Mid-South Sculpture Alliance (MSA) and Co-Chair of the Mid-South Sculpture Conference.