About
Maris studied 3D Design Crafts at Plymouth College of Art, working with a range of materials before specialising in ceramics in her final year.
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Throughout her degree Maris’s practice has become more centred around her research and the processes she uses rather than final outcomes.
This has allowed her to let go of control and curb her own preciousness about what she creates.
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Due to the pandemic and the restrictions it has placed on her practice, loss of access to studios, workshops and materials, Maris has become more resourceful and experimental as a ceramic artist.
Her third year dissertation discussed how historical social attitudes towards women and their presence in the workplace have put them at risk in regards to modern day ill-fitting personal protective equipment and what is being done to counter this. Through her research she found that although attitudes towards women in the workplace are changing, there is a lack of readily available PPE designed for women due to enforced gender stereotypes. She also highlights the physical, mental and emotional problems women face as a result of using ill-fitting PPE.​
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​Maris was inspired by the subject matter of her dissertation to create a physical representation of the problems women face when they wear ill fitting personal protective equipment. For her final major degree project Maris fired her work in a paper kiln which collapses when exposed to the destructive nature of fire during the firing, drawing a parallel to the fragility of the human body.