Maria Ortiz-Haynes is originally from Paterson, New Jersey and is a proud resident of Tampa’s Ybor City.  She is a self-taught mosaic artist.  Her work is flavored by her family’s roots from Havana to Key West to Ybor City.

Her signature work is unlike traditional mosaics and brings a vibrancy and complexity to her unique style of using hand-cut pieces of stained glass of different sizes and bright, bold colors that blend to create an overall fluid, painted effect.

She starts by drawing her design on a wood surface, then using stained glass as her palette, she hand-cuts the glass, glues the pieces onto the surface and finally seals and finishes the piece with grout.

Her work blends her Hispanic and African-American background.  She invites you into her mosaic scenes to examine more closely what makes up the bigger picture – to explore all the hand-cut pieces that make the whole.

Maria’s work has been exhibited at:

Bella Unica Art Gallery at The Vinoy Hotel, St. Petersburg, FL

The Carrollwood Cultural Center, Carrollwood, FL

Ruth Eckerd Hall, FL

The Glazer Children’s Museum, FL

The Art Center Manatee, FL

The Morean Art Center, St. Petersburg, FL

Old Hyde Park Art Center and

is included in several private collections.