With her sculpture "Shiva", the artist interpreted one of the principal deities of Hinduism in a modern and contemporary design, the lustre of the white Meissen porcelain taking centre stage in a particularly impressive manner. Her "Buddha" figure made from radiant white Meissen porcelain also joins the ranks of the manufactory's lively and varied figurines. The profoundly symbolic figure is given form in a minimalist guise, which also charts out the limits and possibilities of working with porcelain.
With her works, Maria Walther aims to encourage people to pause and reflect. While her sculptures "Buddha" and "Shiva", both important religious symbols, have been depicted countless times throughout history, Maria has deliberately chosen a completely new approach in her less detail-rich rendition. While this may seem unusual at first, even spark astonishment, both figures draw the beholder in with visual cues and elicit a profound contemplation.
Her creative process usually begins with extensive research and initial sketches on paper or even sometimes on the computer. Delving into new worlds again and again, she develops the initial ideas for her artwork from this process. In a first step, her creative ideas are given form with modelling mass or as an initial model made from clay or plaster. Her sketches serve as an initial idea and a snapshot pointing the way ahead. Within this exciting process, her ideas continuously evolve as they are reflected in sculptural form. Imparting her work with its distinctive character and working out the fine details are the most beautiful part of her work, says Maria Walther. This is also the case with her "3 Monkeys" figurine, which now delights collectors and lovers of Meissen porcelain both in its hand-painted decorative variant and in pure white. Her artistic exploration has also produced various bottle stoppers and limited-edition wall plates that have added to Meissen’s repertoire of fine porcelain.