Cristina's work quite heavily features themes of Catholicism and her upbringing in Puerto Rico. However she doesn’t want to be labeled a Puerto Rican artist – or a woman artist, or any type of artist, other than a compelling one – she does believe authenticity can come only from a deeply personal place.
One of the main things that attracts me to Cristina's work is her surfaces. Unlike some of the other ceramicist I have encountered during this program, she predominantly uses fired colourings, such as glaze to achieve the finishes. These are then treated after firing to produce an eerily waxy and aged surface which adds a constructed history and provenance to the pieces, giving a sense that they could have been renovated from some tiny chapel in the middle of nowhere.
Cristina's upbringing clearly has a bearing on her style, however her own ideas and interactions put a new slant on the subject matter.
"Somewhere along the way, I realized these [devotional icons] weren't made by God. Someone had a hand in them along the way." -Christina Cordova
It was very interesting hearing her talk about this upbringing and some of the reasons the figurative has featured in her work as it was very similar to the themes I picked up from seeing her work beforehand.
So Cristina was the last one of the visiting artists for the CSULB course and as I said previously she was the perfect artist to wrap up with, and as such I thought I would do something slightly different and include a section where she could talk about herself.
By searching youtube...
I will do some sort of conclusion over the next few days, but that is that! My mind is well and truly blown and my own work is going to change dramatically over the next few months. Who knows... maybe I should do a "Newtown: Update" in a few months to check in!!
Ciao!
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