Greta Ruiz was born in 1964 in San Francisco. She grew up near the small village of Guadalupita, in Northern New Mexico. She has been collecting beads, wood, metal, and old things as long as she can remember and has developed her own organic methods which are reflected in the variety of styles that she works in.

She began seriously working with clay in 1980 with Anita Ginocchio at Santa Fe Preparatory School, in Santa Fe New Mexico. It was here that she developed a lifelong love of clay, and it was Anita who sparked Gretas’ interest in hand building. She continued studies in Claremont, CA with David Furman at Pitzer College, and then traveled to Japan in 1984 for a year of study of Japanese Art History, Fine Art, and the Japanese aesthetic. Upon her return to California, she spent a year studying with Paul Soldner, where she learned more about combining texture, color, and shape to create integrated forms.

Greta moved back to New Mexico in 1986 to pursue her ceramic career. In 2000 she joined Santa Fe Clay and began taking classes and workshops where she explored several hand-building styles. 

​These sculptures are coil built. Colored slips were applied during the building process. They were then wood-fired in an anagama kiln resulting in surface variation and natural ash glaze which brings all of the elements of these pieces together.

photographed by Mark Berndt

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