Olga Ayala

POLYMER CLAY ARTISAN

 Olga, a Nuyorican that grew up in the heart of  Spanish Harlem, is an alumnus of The High School of Art &  Design in New York City.

While sitting on her mother's lap as a child as her mother made out the grocery list, her mother made a quick sketch of Mickey Mouse.  She immediately realized that her mother could draw better than anyone she knew and begged her mother to teach her.The rest... as they say...is  history.

   Olga's father moonlighted as a Timbalero. This gave her the life long passion she has for music, dance and the Latin percussion instruments.

Living in the rhythm section and being immersed in her rich Puerto Rican culture filled with music, vibrant color, laughter and drama she couldn't help but reflect these images and emotions in her work. 

Her pride and humor in her culture spans all aspects of Puerto Rican life for the Pre-Columbian Tainos of the past to the today's Hip Hop culture with occasional outside influences getting into the mix. 

Although she's created art in a variety of fine art techniques she became totally hooked on polymer clay when she "discovered"  it in 1997 and has been working with this material ever since. 

She believes that art should be something you can touch  and interact wth.   She  designs pieces that are functional as well as decorative.  Two of her favorite techniques are the Balinese Filigree technique where small snakes and tiny bits of clay are applied to a base layer of clay in free flowing and coiling designs.  The other is Cane Work, also called Millefiori (Italian for a thousand flowers) named after the traditional Italian glass blowing technique where a rod of clay has a design running its length. 

The designs  on many of her pieces are actually slices of polymer clay canes, and are not painted on. She uses a variety of other techniques to adorn her pieces. 

Her belief that “Art should be something to enjoy on a tactile level” is evident in all of her work. Olga sells and shows work through various venues locally, nationally and internationally which also include cultural festivals and street fairs throughtout the 5 boroughs of New York City and the Tri-State area.  She has had select pieces on sale in the Caribbean Cultural Center's gift shop in New York and The Creamery Garden in Canton, CT .  Her pieces have also been exhibited at the New York Public Library 96th Street Branch and in conjunction with Gale  Saddy's " Baile La Bomba!"  photo exhibit at Boriqua College Northside Learning Center. One of her pieces is currently part of Juan Ramirez DeLucas' permanent collection at El Museo De Arte Popular, Museo Municipal de Madrid, Spain. Olga and her artwork have been featured in local newpapers and more recently the featured artist interviewed on Univision 41's Noticias al Despertar in January 2007. 

To contact Olga Ayala please visit her on :

http://olgaayala.zoomshare.com/

http://www.myspace.com/prpetite