Mara Castro Jimenez

Maria is a museum educator and pigments/color researcher. Her connection to ochre started 5 years ago, when she was working as a museum educator in southern Cordoba, Spain. She kept hearing about some red ochre mines, and she decided to go see them. The mines had an effect on her, and she collected small quantities of ochre. When she was crushing the rocks with a mortar and pestle, she had a sensation of awe hard to explain. This direct experience with ochre made her understand the material in a physical and emotional way, beyond the explanations of archeological science. Maria uses ochre for teaching workshops about pigments and color, and for her own learning: mixing it with different binders, painting on different surfaces, and observing how paint ages on different light and humidity conditions. These experiments help her research about rock art and pigment use in prehistory. She is currently collaborating with archeologists from the University of Cordoba on a project of recently discovered rock art in northern Cordoba, keeps teaching workshops in museums and archeological sites, and her ultimate goal is starting her PhD about the use and value of ochre in the Stone Age.