Wendy Maruyama

I am an artist, craftsperson and educator from San Diego, California. I am trained as furniture maker but I also use woodworking techniques to make sculpture and narrative pieces that resemble dioramas. My projects combine elements of installation work, interpretive centers with the objective of promoting advocacy and awareness for various social issues.

My newest project, The wildLIFE Project, has been completed, and will travel for two years. The Houston Center for Contemporary Craft has created an interactive blog that is coordinated with the exhibition, and has merged some of my material from the original blog. (click the Tumblr link below) The wildLIFE Project is now on view at the Center for Art in Wood in Philadelphia until April 2016. It will then travel to Penland School of Crafts in July and will be on view there until September 2016.

I have taught my final semester at San Diego State University in May 2015 - I am sad because I know I thrived in that academic art environment, and I firmly believe that being around amazing students most of my adult life has kept me "on the pulse" of what is going on, as well as helped me maintain a youthful outlook on life. I have a wonderful circle of friends made up of former students going back to 1980. I look forward to my transition to working one full time job instead of two!

I celebrated my 35 years of teaching in October, with an alumni exhibition, entitled The Long Engagement. Spearheaded by my colleague, Matthew Hebert, the exhibit featured alumni work and a few older pieces of mine that correlate to the different periods of teaching.

My exhibition, Executive Order 9066 is touring the US again, and will be on view at the Boise Art Museum from October 2016 to January 2017.