Steve Mann
T od ay the couple live w ith
their tw o little girls in a 1920s
country bungalow, and w ork in
a his-and-hers studio they built
on a knoll behind the house.
Penland’s executive director,
Jean M cLaughlin, speaks warm -
ly o f Cordova as an engaged,
and engaging, member o f the
school com m unity, always vis-
ible on campus - w orking with
students, at the coffee shop
w ith her daughters, speaking
before a crow d at Penland’s
annual auction about the power
o f the creative process.
“Each time I stand before
one o f her w orks,” M cLaughlin
says, “I think o f the voice o f the
figure and the voice o f the artist -
each highly observant, each
expressively wise - the eyes and
hands saying something every-
one wants to stop and hear.”
Cordova regards her life at
Penland as a gift that has afford-
ed her the space, serenity, and
support to develop as an artist.
Still, there’s a part o f her that
she says gets “paused” when
she’s away from Puerto R ico
and reactivated w henever she
goes back for a visit. W hen the
M useo de A rte Contem poraneo
de Puerto R ico in San Juan gave
her a solo show in 2009, she was
“proud and terrified,” excited
for her w ork to be seen and
understood by an audience w ith
a shared collective conscious-
ness. T he following year she did
a series o f pieces inspired by her
search for “the epicenter o f
culture” on the island, which
she concluded exists, ironically,
“at the margins o f society.”
W hile Cordova doesn’t want
to be labeled a Puerto Rican
artist - or a wom an artist, or any
type o f artist, other than a com-
pelling one - she does believe
authenticity can come only from
a deeply personal place.
“I’m not necessarily inter-
ested in being too generic. It’s
im portant to anchor yourself in
the specificity o f your culture
and your story.”
+
cristinacordova.com
Joyce Lovelace is
Am erican
C raft
’s contributing editor.
058 american craft feb/mari2
