ADEM'S CLAY / about /

Founder, CEO

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Maria Ganescu was born in 1979 in Bucharest, Romania in an artistic family with a long tradition in the art of pottery. Her parents Dragos Constantin Mihai Ganescu (b. 1943) and Eulalia Crisan (b. 1945) were both masters in the art of pottery and trained sculptors, and graduated from The Faculty of Fine Art at the Bucharest National University of Arts. Dragos’ mother, Stela Bozdoc Ganescu (b. 1914) graduated from the same university, where she studied painting and plastic arts. She achieved national fame in the 1960s - 1970s, winning commissions for several public monumental sculptures.

Under the rule of communist Ceausescu, Maria and her parents moved to Hamburg in 1981. Maria's earliest memories of the art of pottery by her parents begin shortly after their arrival in Hamburg.

Being especially inspired by the creative art of ceramic and pottery making by her parents, her entire childhood was dominated by her artistic output made of clay, textile and paint, creating especially animals. On her seventh birthday (1986), inspired by the artistic environment in which she was living, she painted a monumental colorful flying bird of paradise on the footboard of her bed.

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The unpretentious approach of her parents and her grandmother as artists, their real determination to create on a par with such great artists as Constantin Brâncuşi, Hans Arp, Henry Moore and Alberto Giacometti, not only inspired Maria to appreciate and admire their work along with the latter artists but provided her with great insights into the creative artistic process, and an unprecedented breadth of understanding of the materials, design and technology.

During 1980s Maria began pottery making, developing the necessary skill for using potter-wheel and experimenting with a kiln for glazing.

Her passion for the art of pottery and painting continued for the next eighteen years from 1994 to 2012. In 1998, Maria begin to study at Institute of Graphic Design, Hamburg, and continued to work in industry in graphic, web and corporate design for various Web design- and IT companies, including Star Cosmos (2000), Logan Systemtechnik, Hamburg (1994 - 1998), and the Hamburg based IT firm, Computer Netzwerke Kommunkation, CNK GmbH (1998 - 2010).

In 2001 Maria founded Magtime Synergy Associates, a web and graphic design studio that provides services for private clients upon contract-based commission. After a long two-year series of excursions to Asia, Far East, North Africa and Middle East, she announced the formation of ADEM'S CLAY in December 2011.