Maggie Belinski – Ceramic Artist & Painter
I am a ceramic artist and painter living in Richmond, VA, and a recent Virginia Commonwealth University School of the Arts graduate. I work in many media, including oils, acrylics, clay, and textiles. I enjoy making things that can be used and/or appreciated in everyday life. My work focuses on death and rebirth to show that death is the natural progression of the life cycle that allows us to appreciate life more. I often use mushrooms as a symbol of rebirth from something that has died. I have also begun exploring feminism through the lens of witchcraft, as the term witch was originally a negative term to villainize women, but has been reclaimed by women to show how powerful women are.
When I started my spiritual journey into witchcraft, my art style transformed. In Witch culture, there is an appreciation for nature and the cycles within it, which is what drew me in. I began to address ideas about the life cycle, death and rebirth, the modern witch, and feminism. Through my work, I focus on death to try to spin the view that I have on it from a fearful and negative thing; when in reality it is the natural and beautiful progression of the life cycle.