Maria Root started Primitiva Pottery and Tile as a pottery that offered dinnerware and decorative containers. Whimsy infused her style through the years though function remained essential.  Function and whimsy are compatible as evident in the addition of her garden art and artisan tile lines.

The artist has several signatures to her work. The basic forms of her work derive from organic forms with often just less than perfect angles, undulating lip edges, and bulbous bodies. Maria's signature of dimensionality through bas relief carving, embossing, and sculpting, leaves each piece calling to be touched. She layers porcelain on some of her terracotta forms to enhance the depth and vibrancy of colors she can achieve on a terracotta clay body.  Lastly, many of the artist's works rest on tripod feet whether they are the carved feet of her dinnerware serving bowls, planter pod feet, 'Gaudi jar feet,' or pillow boxes.

Many of Maria's pieces require a series of steps to complete.  For example, a tile may take 12 to 15 steps to complete.  Terracotta planters may take a dozen steps, whereas a lidded decorative containers may take 25 steps or more. My garden totems take too many steps to count--but it is the steps that give each creation its uniqueness.