Back to My Roots: Mexican-American Style Clay Ornaments

One of the strange things about life is that things from my earliest years of life come back into my life in different ways. This seems to happen more lately. Maybe it's an artistic cycle of some sort.

How it happens is interesting. I get "stuck" in one aspect of my artistic work, so I do something that is very easy for me. Which is why I buy 100 pounds of clay now and then so I can play with making terracotta tiles or tile-like ornaments.

I've been a little stuck lately so out came the clay. I ended up making clay crosses, clay Jewish stars, and clay birds. Just in time for holiday gifts. It's fun. Making decorative clay pieces like this reminds me of some of the Mexican-American or Chicano crafts I would see growing up in Southern California. It's comforting to me as well as somehow seems to open the gates of creative flow within me.

So if you're stuck in some aspect of art (or life) maybe this approach will work for you. Not that you have to make terracotta ornaments. Sometimes I'll make hand-patterned fabrics to wear as sarongs or paint ties for my husband. Whatever it is, it's something I can completely relax with. Opening the kiln is always fun. Kind of like baking bread, but with a more permanent result.

www.CristinaAcosta.com

My Life as a Ceramic Tile Artist, The Beginning

The year 1994 was the year that I saw my first work of art (my hand painted ceramic tile mural) on a magazine cover . Albeit, it was only about two or three square inches, nonetheless, it was enough to send me all over town buying every copy of the magazine I could find, sending them to my friends & relatives. I was sure I was going to be famous (and rich)!

I began creating ceramic tiles in 1991. I had just finished a two-year stint as a lettering and mural artist for an outdoor advertising (billboard) company, and was teaching college art classes in the evenings. I was so sickened by the substances I used in the billboard work, that I couldn't comfortably oil paint. Implementing a friend's suggestion, I switched to painting on ceramics. Completing a series of images, I sent them to the Ann Sacks Tile & Stone store in Portland, Oregon. Kohler Plumbing Industries had just purchased the store as the flagship for a national chain and I found myself serendipitously in the tile business!
I quickly joined a business class, bought a kiln and learned about the ceramics business. READ MORE. . . .

www.CristinaAcosta.com