María Verdugo Althöfer was born in Barntrup, Germany, but has been living in Spain since she was two years old; moving from a small village (Lovingos) to Madrid at the age of four.
This duality of hailing from two places and simultaeously from none embedded itself into her consciousness, guiding her towards her decision to follow two divergent paths; Biology and Fine Arts. María received a degree in Biology in 1989, and is now a limnologist specializing in phytoplankton. In 1992, she began drawing, painting and etching courses in Estudio13. Her interest in engraving led the artist to focus on print-making, following courses in CIEC (stone lithograhy) and Elmonodelatinta (plate lithography), among others.
At this moment María is interested in lithography, manipulating and modifying the paper so as not to limit her work to two-dimensionality. In her works she speaks about things that happen to her person, both everyday situations or more transcendental ones. Sometimes María creates small characters in the form of birds in order to explain sensations and emotions. She likes to use maps which are transformed to reflect her own personal reality. She also renders self-portraits to express her interpretation of the world. Her background in biology has had effects on her work. Images of plants or animals are made to look like reproductions of old natural science prints and drawings.
