Martia Smith

Martia was born in Hartford, Connecticut and moved to Arizona in 1962. She lives with her husband and two cats in Peoria and Pinetop. She studied art at Glendale Community College and Arizona State University before choosing to enter the field of special education. While teaching special education students by day, at night she worked as a potter. After 14 years, she returned to the art world full time, creating large hand built ceramic vessels. Ten years ago she was introduced to kiln formed glass or warm glass as it is known, and it seemed a natural progression to move on to this new art form. She is an associate faculty member at Northland Pioneer College in Showlow, Arizona where she teaches kiln formed glass.

Each of Martia’s creations is one of a kind. She personally designs and fabricates all of her work, emphasizing individuality, not mass production. She loves light and its play on color, volume, space and texture. Her work is predominately of transparent glass, sometimes with dichroic accents, but has been venturing into opaque and dichroic pieces.

Her work can be seen at the Art Barn in Pinetop, Arizona from May to September and at select art venues throughout Arizona during the winter.

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