MARIA SCHECHTER
Location:
Bloomington, IN, USA
ARTIST BIO
Maria Schechter is an interdisciplinary craft arts practitioner, born in Pasadena, California. She earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, Washington, and pursued graduate studies at New York University toward a master’s degree in Visual Art Administration. She later completed a Master in International Business at Schiller International University in Heidelberg, Germany. In 2018, Schechter’s career was interrupted by a serious car accident caused by an impaired driver, resulting in a spinal cord injury that left her unable to work for several years. During her recovery, she reconnected with her practice through alternative healing, studying medicinal mushrooms such as turkey tail to address inflammation following multiple surgeries to her arms and hands as well as her spine. This exploration led to an in-depth study of natural materials and its integration into her art-making process. Today, Maria is entering her seventh year of a fully sustainable artistic practice.
Maria's sustainable, ecologically rooted practice is primarily focused on natural dyes and the use of natural materials. Living and working in Bloomington, Indiana, Schechter’s work is deeply informed by her lived experience as an artist with a mobile disability and a commitment to environmental stewardship. Schechter’s creative process involves ethical foraging and the use of natural materials—mushrooms, seeds, and botanicals—to produce her own plant-based pigments. She is also known for her innovative use of mycelium as a sculptural medium, working with unseeded substrates that do not fruit mushrooms to emphasis impermanence and regeneration. Her seminal mycelium project, Gatekeepers—a five-foot arch grown over three years—serves as a living homage to cycles of growth and decay. Her work has exhibited with institutions such as the Anderson Museum, the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields, Bret Waller Gallery, Minnetrista Museum & Garden, and Triton Museum in Santa Clara, California.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My artistic practice is rooted in ancestral knowledge, environmental stewardship, and a belief that craft can guide us toward healthier ways of living. As an American environmental artist of Aztec and Celtic descent, I synthesize the natural philosophies of both lineages, reintroducing them into a contemporary world in urgent need of balance and regeneration. My work explores the profound, reciprocal relationship between humanity and the natural world, drawing inspiration from traditional ecological practices and the teachings of my grandmother, a curandera, whose wisdom continues to shape my approach to healing, materiality, and care.
Technically, my process begins with ethical foraging and traditional pigment-making methods. I process natural dyes by hand, building my painting palettes from botanicals, fungi, minerals, and other earth-derived materials that honor ancestral techniques while meeting contemporary standards for lightfastness and sustainability. These dyes are applied to watercolor paper mounted on wood panels and integrated with preserved mushrooms, mycelium, clay, and regenerative substrates. Each piece becomes both an image and an ecosystem—an embodied record of place, process, and responsibility. Grounded in historical craft traditions yet shaped by innovation, my paintings and sculptural works advocate for climate awareness, environmental justice, and the use of regenerative materials as viable alternatives within contemporary art.
My practice also engages deeply with community through education. As an educator, I teach sustainable art practices, historical pigments, and environmental awareness, helping others integrate ecological responsibility into both their creative work and daily lives. Through workshops on natural dyes and mycelium as a medium, I connect participants to historical craft traditions while empowering them with practical tools to create eco-conscious art. Working with materials such as agar, algae, botanical color sources, and mycelium substrates, these workshops foster reconnection to the natural world and cultivate a community invested in sustainability, knowledge-sharing, and collective care.
