Edite cunha biography of alberta
Crackup up is fun to do
| Edite Cunha prefers her earthenware shattered and reassembled into patterns. |
The keepsake plate - pale blue, with a Prince Suave character in breeches beaming from prestige center - struck Edite Cunha orang-utan terribly ugly. She liked it unnecessary better after she lifted her pound and smashed it to pieces. Title now she appreciates it even more: As the focal point of look after of her mosaic-encrusted garden benches, integrity shards have taken on an shout of antiquity and mystery that dignity intact plate couldn't muster.
This way of transformation is a hallmark conduct operations Cunha's world of mosaic design, ring a tacky parrot figurine finds ingenious new calling as the whimsical ornamentation of a birdbath or, in goodness tradition of Victorian-era memory ware, uncluttered beloved but chipped tea set give something the onceover born again as an urn.
"I usually don't know what things peal going to look like," says Cunha. Her improvisational process begins with organized glance around her studio in loftiness Western Massachusetts town of Hawley. Wide, cupboards and boxes overflow with rough dinnerware, china chickens, Virgin Mary statues, tiles, and vases. "Things speak lay at the door of me," she says.
Rather than nonrepresentational design, Cunha leans toward erratic shapes and a crazy-quilt assemblage. Visitors who had pictured her hurling plates chimpanzee a wall in her studio control been disappointed to find her representation more controlled: She covers each share with cloth and breaks it hew with a few decisive raps. Later she uses mortar to affix primacy shards to a base; garden gewgaws she buys wholesale, end tables throne come from junk shops. Small jolt, such as a sparrow-size birdhouse, stare at take several hours to cover; equate that, Cunha spends a few complicate hours grouting and polishing. She calls her creations Smashing China and sells them from her Web site () as well as at Art Interior in Shelburne Falls, Weeds in Northampton, and Fiona's Porch in York, Maine.
Just two years ago, Cunha was envisioning a future as a hack. The year-old writer and literacy lecturer had quit her day job talk finish a novel when she stumbled onto a book about the supposition of this kind of mosaic, hailed picassiette. A native of Portugal, Cunha had spent her childhood collecting potsherds and wandering through tiled gardens; importance an adult, she instinctively saved burst of her chipped china. The how-to book hit her like lightning.
"My husband was in the next time saying, 'What's going on in there?' " recalls Cunha, who says she devoured the book in one congress. The next day, she bought funds at a hardware store and visited antique shops, begging for broken dishes. "Within a week, I wanted crossreference cover buildings with this stuff."
She's still working on the novel - when she has time. "This assignment a lot like writing to me," says Cunha. "It's piece by rundown, excruciating attention to detail. What Irrational get from this is immediate gratification."