Mara Superior’s Flora & Fauna Series is inspired by the beauty of the natural and the animal world. She depicts realistic wildlife, enchanted woods, and fantastical fairy tale creatures, and she plays with whimsical shapes and unusual scale relationships between plants and animals.
Her series of platters depicting individual animals were inspired by 18th and 19th century engravings in French natural history reference books. These prints typically showed only one animal or plant at a time, inspiring Superior to harness the power of focusing on each animal individually. Some of the works in this series also refer back to animal depictions throughout art history, such as the famous 18th century zebra painting by the English painter George Stubbs.
Superior often incorporates evergreen trees into her work. To Superior, evergreens symbolize immortality. They are always there—they don’t lose their leaves, and they change color in the winter and then brighten up again in spring and summer. Evergreens are also the arbor vitae, or tree of life, in that they support and nourish so many creatures in the forest. The evergreen images are sometimes accompanied by written words such as “evergreen”, “arbor vitae” or “forever”.
Mara Superior, “Ornithology”, 2011, 16 x 16 x 2.5″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze.
Mara Superior, “Enchanted Wood/The Wild Side”, 1997. 10 x 22 x 4.5″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze.
Mara Superior, “The Voyeur: Une Fleur Amoureaux, A Flower In Love”, 2010, 16 x 20 x 1.5”, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze. Peabody Essex Museum of Art.
Mara Superior, “Peace on Earth”, 2003, 13 x 19 x 2″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze.
Mara Superior, “Le Beau Bete”, 2002, 16 x 16 x 2″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze.
Mara Superior, “My Forest”, 1993, 15.5 x 12 x 1.5″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze.
Mara Superior, “A Landscape/A Cow”, 1985, 12 x 8 x 3″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze. Bennington Museum of Art (2019.1.2).
Mara Superior, “A Spring Dream (Rabbit Teapot)”, 2008, 16 x 17 x 6″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, wood, gold leaf. Fuller Craft Museum (2018.25).
Mara Superior, “Mates for Life (A Swan’s Wedding Day)”, 2008, 23 x 16 x 10″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, wood, gold leaf, bone, ink.
Mara Superior, “Jumbo II”, 2002, 16 x 16 x 2″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze.
Mara Superior, “A Hare”, 1990, 18 x 12 x 1″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze.
Mara Superior, “Vermont View”, 2005, 14.5 x 19.5 x 1.5″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze, wood frame, paint, gold leaf. Bennington Museum of Art (2019. 1.1).
Mara Superior, “Linnaeus Father of Taxonomy”, 2010, 16 x 6 x 6″, high-fired porcelain, ceramic oxides, underglaze, glaze.
