Born in Pamplona Colombia January 11 1949

Professional Studies

Enamel painting, Paul Savignie Paris 1971
Ceramics, Universidad Nacional de Colombia 1976
Arts Mayor, Iowa University  1980

Exhibitions

Participant in numerous exhibitions, both individual and collective, since 1976. Honored in 1974, Special Mention, Salón de Artes del Fuego, in 1989, Honorable Mention, Second International Ceramics Competition, Mino Japan, and in 2004, Special Mention, XVII Salón del Fuego.

Won the Laspau Icetex scholarship in 1979.

Awarded in 1992, V Salón Regional de Artistas, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bucaramanga, and in 1994,Participant diploma, XIV Bienal de Ceramica, Vallauris, France.

Her work is in exhibition at the Museo del Barro de América, Caracas Venezuela, University of Iowa Museum, Museo de la Universidad Nacional de Colombia, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Museo de Arte Moderno de Bucaramanga , Museo de Arte Moderno de Pamplona, Museo de Arte de Ponce, Puerto Rico.

Lives and Works in Tenjo, Cundinamarca- Colombia.

I was one of the professors of the School of Arts at The Natinal University in Bogotá Colombia, during 28 years. I promot the ceramics career and held the position as Director of Plastic Arts careers.

Statement

Clay and fire have been a part of my life for over 38 years. I have taken risks and opportunities; fortune has been generous with me, maybe because I have always been watchful,soaring up from the past in order to grasp the present.

My work method is based on establishing a relationship with the raw clay. It is a bond where we both actively give and receive; I follow all the raw material’s tempi, and it receives the touch of all my fingers. The resulting forms are not just an expresión of clay’s physical properties; they are primarily a shared harmony, its tempo and mine.

I Strive after awakening a sensory experience in the viewers, almost as the touching of skin.

I belive art is and excercise of the spirit.

The cosmos is the Basic reference and starting point of my work. That infinite space where the beginning of life is logged in the transition from the inorganic to the organic matter.

The clay is a solid sea of life accumulated in a compressed time. My main interest is within nature, wich I refer to when working with clay. I live in a country with an extraordinarry landscape. The Andes are my mountains, there is also the presence of the Amazon its Fast-flowings and enormous Rivers, its magnificent lagoons, its majestics waterfalls, its beauty and fragility of it all. Through textures, scrapings and complex surfaces, I want to Express my feelings in relation to the images that have touched me and stayed with me during the many years of encounters with the landscape and life.

I try to convey ideas, experiences and emotions, create space and objects that rice questions with a different Light. The clay has the power of bringing on deep and meaningful encounters.

The inspiration came from the sea

It was a bright day inthe “ Islas del Rosario” (Caribbean Sea) I remember I was on holidays with a Group of divers, holding my mask and flippers, twenty five years younger and with all my senses awake: it’s the first time I’m going to see a coral reef. The feelings that invade me are ambiguous; curiosity and fear tell me  I should take the risk and dive,sourrrounded by the misterious blueish forms that move delicately.These images accompany me, are parto f my memory and of my present work.

Cecilia Ordóñez