Maura Smotrich

Maura’s educational path began with the study of fine art as an undergraduate, transitioned into the study and practice of architecture and urban planning, and landed at a new starting point for her – the fusion of selective architectural and planning concepts expressed through the medium of painting, collage, mixed media, and photography. Maura believes that structural equilibrium man-made or natural, is the necessary component of any architectural or landscape composition, and a major focus of her work. She seeks equilibrium by carefully crafting interlocking balance with color, form, foreground, background, and texture as her tools. Choice of materials and how they are juxtaposed is important in her pieces. Often, the intention is to achieve a playful sense of movement within the confines of balanced stability. She uses this template to evoke connections and memories. If the connection is made, a viewer may tap into personal or generic feelings rooted in the memory of place, time and human history. She believes that emotions are triggered by these visual connections to places, people, and vague or succinct memories of each. Her art explores this belief. She also hopes her art will facilitate curiosity and communicate beauty.

As an architect/planner/artist, she has also merged her planner’s interpretation of placemaking in nature with experientially making art, and now runs a program called, Nature Therapy Placemaking. She is a proponent of the author Richard Louv who wrote, “all of life is rooted in nature, and a separation from that wider world desensitizes and diminishes our bodies and spirits. Reconnecting to nature, nearby and far, opens new doors to health, creativity, and wonder.” Moreover, in planning, placemaking has been defined as the collective “reimagining and reinventing of public spaces as the heart of every community.” Maura takes this one-step further with her belief that every individual has peaceful placemaking capacity within themselves, at the heart of their being, and an ability to reconnect to that place through guided mindful experiences in nature and subsequent artistic expression. She likens it to mindfulness meditation in and with nature, using all of one’s senses to reestablish equilibrium and balance, followed by affirmation through creative expression. Maura is a Certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide and calls her practice Nature Therapy Placemaking. Her practice invites participants to mindfully reconnect to a personal place of wellness while within the context of a restorative natural setting. Maura’s outdoor nature and art wellness program is a logical extension of her personal journey, and she believes it is an antidote to the desensitizing, constant use of digital technology required to stay relevant both before and during the Covid-19 pandemic. The program also attempts to counter the loneliness and mental health effects resulting from the pandemic. The goal is to provide a wellness reprieve in the outdoors; and, to provide the opportunity for nature and art to contribute to personal restoration.

Maura is a Certified Nature and Forest Therapy Guide, trained and certified by the Association of Nature and Forest Therapy Guides and Programs (ANFT). She has also taken mindfulness workshops at both Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health and the Esalen Institute. She is a licensed architect and has a Master in Urban Planning.