Marie Bortolotto is a sculptor living in Vancouver, BC Canada who works primarily in stone and wood to create contemporary abstract sculptures based on simplified organic forms and poetic metaphors. In 1996, she graduated from the Nova Scotia College of Art + Design with a Bachelor of Fine Art degree focusing on sculpture and performance art. During this period, she lived and worked in Pietrasanta, Italy, a mecca for international stone sculptors and artisans. Currently, her work explores the vessel form with its multiple uses as a functional object and a ceremonial one. Intrigued by how all life feeds on life, her hand carved vessels articulate an awareness of the responsibility of feeding beyond oneself, into the invisible realm of ancestry and memory where reverence and gratitude are evoked. Her recent mixed media works on paper draw inspiration from Neolithic cave paintings and ancient scripts where the "line" becomes a vehicle to explore themes of transience, time and memory. She also writes poetry which expresses similar themes. Overall, her work is fueled by the underlying belief in the power of art to transform, renew and nourish our modern human lives.