Sara G. M.

Sara G. M. is a ceramic artist from San Antonino Castillo Velasco, Oaxaca, and the daughter of José G. A. and Teresita M., the founders of Taller Manos Que Ven. She grew up in the family workshop and regards clay as an inheritance from her father, the master ceramicist of their pueblo. The family digs its own red clay from about a meter underground on its land, and she models it by hand. Within the workshop's tradition of mermaids, Zapotec women and large figures, Sara works in her own voice: mermaids, flowered candle holders, vases with faces and nahuales. One of her prize-winning sculptures, Irreversible, shows a woman with her eyes closed, her braid and traditional shawl holding on to what came before while new branches grow from her; Sara gave it that name because she feels clay transforms things permanently. She won first prize in ceramics at Friends of Oaxacan Folk Art's 2018 competition for young Oaxacan folk artists, after honorable mentions in 2008, 2011, 2013 and 2016.