Maria Isabel Lopez
Maria Isabel Lopez is an award-winning actress, former beauty queen, Ms. Philippines for the Miss Universe Pageant and accomplished mosaic artist whose creative journey spans film, beauty and visual art.
The Filipino-American visual artist whose contemporary mosaic practice explores the human form, nature, spirituality, identity and belonging. Working with Italian smalti, stained glass, natural stones and found materials, she combines traditional mosaic techniques with a contemporary visual language.
She is a Fine Arts graduate of the University of the Philippines in Diliman QC. She worked fashion designer of Rustan’s and SM Department stores- reason for her interest in the female anatomy. The figures in her nudes are elongated, a manifestation of her fashion orientation. She was a former Secretary of the NCCA Committee on Visual Arts-mandated to promote arts and culture.
Her earlier mosaic works shows a desire to experiment with found objects-river pebbles, sand mortar, shells and natural stones to create highly textured compositions.
As founder and event organizer for The Film Artist Group, her passion is in promoting the art of her peers in showbusiness. With the success of Art and Beauty Parts 1, 2 &3 from 2010, 2011 and 2013, she inspires her fellow beauty queen visual artists to show their beauty and talent beyond what the eyes can see.
In 2011 she took formal lessons in mosaic, Ravenna style at the Chicago Institute of Mosaic Art owned by Italian Matteo Randi using smalti from the Orsoni family in Italy, and the traditional hammer and hardie.
In 2014, she had workshops diversifying her medium to stained glass at the Institute of Mosaic Art in Berkeley, California under Rachel Rodi.
The visit to the UNESCO World Heritage site in Ravenna, Italy in 2015 inspired her first one woman show in 2016 entitled " Body and Soul"- celebrated the female form while exploring the unseen forces-strength, emotion, sensuality and life force -that give the body its prescence and meaning.
Her earlier mosaic works shows a desire to experiment with found objects-river pebbles, sand mortar, shells and natural stones to create highly textured compositions.
As founder and event organizer for The Film Artist Group, her passion is in promoting the art of her peers in showbusiness. With the success of Art and Beauty Parts 1, 2 &3 from 2010, 2011 and 2013, she inspires her fellow beauty queen visual artists to show their beauty and talent beyond what the eyes can see.
In 2011 she took formal lessons in mosaic, Ravenna style at the Chicago Institute of Mosaic Art owned by Italian Matteo Randi using smalti from the Orsoni family in Italy, and the traditional hammer and hardie.
In 2014, she had workshops diversifying her medium to stained glass at the Institute of Mosaic Art in Berkeley, California under Rachel Rodi.
The visit to the UNESCO World Heritage site in Ravenna, Italy in 2015 inspired her first one woman show in 2016 entitled " Body and Soul"- celebrated the female form while exploring the unseen forces-strength, emotion, sensuality and life force -that give the body its prescence and meaning.
She is based in Sebastopol California where she maintains her studio in Sebastopol.
The artist recently won Coordinator's Award in Resist and Persist Exhibition at the Sebastopol Center for the Arts in June of 2026 for her mixed media mosaic "Free Miradel Torres and Baby Karl".
The artist has an ongoing solo exhibition in Usher Gallery, Petaluma entitled "Illumination in Glass"-The Mosaic Art of Maria Isabel Lopez showcasing her evolution as a visual storyteller.
The artist is a Professional Member of SAMA -Society of American Mosaic Artists and a member of the SGAA-Stained Glass Association of America.
love you babe
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