ARTISTAS DEL MUNDO- ARGENTINA

NORA MIRANDA 

Hoy viajamos a argentina a  conocer la artista Nora Miranda, los invitamos a disfrutar de su obra.

Profesora de Geografía y Ciencias Biológicas...  Asi reza mi título, y a eso me dediqué 33 años. Y Qué hago aquí y ahora? Sería un interrogante lógico y esperable. Y… Creo que mucho de lo vivido, lo compartido con muchas personitas como mis estudiantes, con mis colegas y familia, me llevó a imaginar y buscar nuevos significados en este mundo y lo estoy encontrando en el arte.

Expresarme artísticamente es una faceta que estoy alimentando, inicié en la fotografía, ahora sigo en el mosaico y buceo en la acuarela incipientemente.

¿Cómo fue tu primer contacto con el mosaico? 

Si apelo a mis recuerdos, me veo recogiendo pedacitos de loza, fragmentos de azulejos, pedacitos de vidrio,  piedritas raras en mis caminatas adolescentes. Lo que me llevó acumular en cajitas y frascos esos materiales. Que estuvieron esperando muchos años unirse y comunicar algo a través de una forma y de sus colores. Después admirar grandes obras del mosaico en México, Ecuador o Chile, en espacios públicos, sencillos pero tan bellos y gratificantes.

¿Qué fue lo que más te atrajo del mosaico? 

Quizá sea completar, integrar, salir de la soledad de ser un pedacito y con otros similares, ser,  con sentido, con potencialidad, comunicar cooperativamente, vincularse y otorgar sentido.

¿Qué representa el mosaico en tu vida y por qué lo elegís? 

Por lo dicho anteriormente, los fragmentos dicen algo, pero están incompletos, cuando los unes en un soporte, con ritmo, con provocación, le buscas una coherencia de forma o de color, logras un todo, logras decir algo, construir un mensaje, imaginar, desafiar… Quizá el mosaico me representa porque soy un fragmento, que junto a  otros he podido construir a lo largo de mi vida.

¿Qué te inspira a realizar una obra?

Cuando concurrí a mi primer taller de mosaico, hice un sencillo  colibrí, guiada por la profesora, aprendí a cortar teselas, a lijar a pegar…de ahí en más empecé a diseñar mis  sencillas obras, pequeñas. Preguntando que colores, que formas, gustan más. Recreando fotografías propias. He debido aprender y sigo haciéndolo, acerca del color, de la perspectiva, del ritmo y movimiento a través de los andamentos. Aun me falta experimentar otros materiales . y ahora estoy iniciando el  realizar mosaico para el espacio público, donde comparto proyectos ya en marcha.

ARTISTS OF THE WORLD- ARGENTINA

NORA MIRANDA

Today we travel to Argentina to meet the artist Nora Miranda, we invite you to enjoy her work.

Professor of Geography and Biological Sciences... That's what my title says, and that's what I dedicated myself to for 33 years. And what am I doing here and now? It would be a logical and expected question. And… I think that much of what I experienced, what I shared with many little people like my students, with my colleagues and family, led me to imagine and search for new meanings in this world and I am finding it in art.

Expressing myself artistically is a facet that I am nurturing, I started in photography, now I am still in mosaic and incipiently diving into watercolor.

How was your first contact with the mosaic?

If I appeal to my memories, I see myself picking up bits of crockery, fragments of tiles, bits of glass, rare pebbles on my teenage walks. What it took me to accumulate these materials in little boxes and jars. They have been waiting for many years to unite and communicate something through a form and its colors. Then admire great mosaic works in Mexico, Ecuador or Chile, in public spaces, simple but so beautiful and rewarding.

What was it that most attracted you to the mosaic?

Perhaps it is to complete, to integrate, to get out of the loneliness of being a little piece and with other similar ones, to be, with meaning, with potential, to communicate cooperatively, to bond and to grant meaning.

What does the mosaic represent in your life and why do you choose it?

For what has been said before, the fragments say something, but they are incomplete, when you join them in a support, with rhythm, with provocation, you look for a coherence of form or color, you achieve a whole, you manage to say something, build a message, imagine , challenge… Perhaps the mosaic represents me because I am a fragment, which together with others I have been able to build throughout my life.

What inspires you to make a work?

When I attended my first mosaic workshop, I made a simple hummingbird, guided by the teacher, I learned to cut tesserae, to sand and glue... from then on I began to design my simple, small works. Asking what colors, what shapes, like the most. Recreating own photographs. I have had to learn, and continue to do so, about color, perspective, rhythm and movement through the andamentos. I still need to experiment with other materials. and now I am starting to make mosaic for the public space, where I share projects already underway.

How do you see the development of mosaic in Argentina in recent years?

I understand that there is a great development. There are great mosaic artists and they also teach. Many of them (most of them women) have been trained in national universities in the arts and have continued their training abroad in Brazil, Spain, Italy and have built training spaces here in our country.

 A separate paragraph deserves the fact that today the mosaic is, essentially, here and everywhere, an art of women. We are the vast majority. Why? Do you dare to venture an answer?

Although there are famous mosaicist men, women seek, in this society with still patriarchal dominance, to reverse this situation. Also in art in general, and especially in mosaic, being male has a plus, but it's going to fall apart, we have to encourage people to come out of anonymity and the back room. It is an arduous task, but little by little the sorority will change this reality.

Mosaic portraits make an impact. How do you achieve that realism with such a hard material (tile, Venetian mosaic or stone)? And what are the most recurring themes?

I'm still an apprentice…I attend a regular portrait workshop (online with Ini Viera from the Federal Capital). There isn't another portraitist in my city, yet. As of 2020, I studied two levels of portraiture and now I am in a workshop that has contact two days a week, for construction and then correction of each part of the portrait.

We work from a base photograph, we recognize lights and shadows, we analyze the anatomy of the eyes, nose, mouth, cheeks, forehead, hair, etc. We choose the material (tile or venecita for example) and the colors. There are several techniques to make the pieces of the portrait.

The first thing we build are the eyes, but it is necessary to “find the look” of the sitter, if it doesn't “do not work” you won't achieve the link with the work, at least in my experience.

What recommendation would you give to someone who wants to start in mosaic mosaicism?

That they do it, that they search, that they experience the realization that after 2 or 3 hours of cutting, polishing, measuring, you just want to continue creating in mosaic.

Thank you, I am still an apprentice in the world of mosaic, a fragment in constant search.

Cecilia Mazurenco