Maria Eva (Born 1977) was named after her grandmother. She was born into a comfortable family in the fine-looking region of San Diego, California. She fell in love with ballet at an early age, and passionately pursued it throughout her adolescence, and continues to do so to date. At the same time, Maria immediately demonstrated a confidence and began to paint landscapes of the surrounding regions. When she was 18 years old, she enrolled in a Fine Arts program at the University of Southern California, where her talent flourished. In her first year at the University of Southern California, she received "President's Honor" in a juried exhibition. This motivated her and she went on to display several pieces of her work in several shows in Santa Cruz at the Blue Spiral Art Gallery.
As a result of her outstanding work, she was also awarded a one-year internship at the Georgia Museum of Art. She took advantage of this opportunity to learn the various aspects of organizing an art exhibit. Her winning spree continued and in her Senior Year, at a juried student exhibition, she won "Best In Show." Maria subsequently earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts and graduated Magna Cum Laude. Most importantly for her, however, was when she was the time in her third year at the University that she spent abroad in Italy (Cortona), studying the Italian masters. This gave her an opportunity to study and witness first hand so much of the masterpieces she had only read of earlier. Her time in Europe also put her in touch with many other contemporary artists and art forms.
