It’s Saturday evening in Palm Coast, Florida, and the patrons of an elite country club admire the reflection of the sunset mirrored on the Atlantic Ocean. The lofty clouds are reflecting the deep reds and bright oranges of the setting sun, providing a magnificent backdrop as they sip their cocktails and nibble on huge chilled shrimp. Meanwhile, back in the kitchen, a celebrated Cuban artist has just punched the time clock and prepares to begin washing the first of countless loads of dishes. It’s the beginning of his shift that will last until nearly midnight. If he were still living in Cuba, chances are that this particular dishwasher would be one of the distinguished guests.
El Nuevo Piscis (The New Fish), 2007, raku-fired clay. The first piece López Paredes created since coming to the United States. Photo courtesy Uldis López Paredes
But this is not Cuba and Uldis López Paredes is grateful to have this dishwashing job. The same hands that have created magnificent sculptures and installations of enormous significance may be performing this mundane task, but his mind is on the contents of the kiln in a tiny studio that also serves as a potting shed for a local nursery and garden center. Inside the kiln is the second piece of work that he has created in the year that he has been living in Florida. This piece is called Legacy and it celebrates the freedom of expression that jazz, an American indigenous art form, represents. On his day off, the artist-turned-dishwasher will unveil Legacy to a crowd of more than 500 art and music lovers gathered to kick off the North East Florida Jazz Association’s third annual jazz festival at a reception in his honor. He will not understand most of the accolades he receives since he does not speak English, but the animated language of appreciation will not need to be interpreted. Tomorrow he will return to the club’s kitchen and wash still more dishes while he designs his next piece in his head, hoping for a better job with more time to create his art.
Sketching Legacy
Uldis Lopez Paredes making preliminary sketches for Legacy. Photo courtesy Uldis López Paredes
The first piece he created in the US was a small raku-fired sculpture of the skeleton of a fish with wheels attached to its fins. He calls the piece El Nuevo Piscis (The New Fish). Apparently, “a fish out of water” means the same thing in any language. That’s how López Paredes views himself since coming to the United States last year. Prior to executing his carefully orchestrated plan to be reunited with his family in this country, López Paredes knew he would face difficulties assimilating to the extreme cultural and other differences in his new home. But perhaps because of the lack of information available in Cuba about life in the US, or perhaps because he is simply naïve, the hardcore realities he has encountered in the land of plenty have been far more frustrating than he ever imagined. And yet, his creative spirit remains strong. “It’s all part of the journey,” he says through an interpreter.
This particular journey involved leaving his comfortable home and his high-ranking positions in the Cuban art world to start over in the US. In Cuba, López Paredes was the President of the Consejo Provincial de las Artes Plasticás (Fine Arts Council) and the Association of Cuban Artists and Artisans, as well as a celebrated artist in his own right. His work is in museums, galleries, and private collections throughout the world. López Paredes is best known for his raku-fired ceramic pieces, and is also a gifted painter, sculptor, and theater set designer.
Life in Cuba is difficult. It is a tightly controlled society. There are countless restrictions and economic hardship, yet Cuba and the Cuban people have always valued art. As a successful artist, Lopez was afforded an elevated lifestyle compared with the average Cuban citizen. “In Cuba,” he explains, “artists are at the top level of the hierarchy, ranking even higher than doctors” as long as they don’t criticize or make overtly negative statements about the government. Like so many other Cuban artists, Lopez became a master of the double entendre and though his often-surreal work “reflects the internal contradictions of the system,” he learned to work within the system and maintained his leadership positions within highly visible arts organizations like the Consejo and ACAA. The adversity of life in Cuba became too much for Lopez’s family, however; in 2006, his young daughter, her mother, and his parents fled to the United States and settled in Palm Coast, a quiet beachside community in northeast Florida.
The burning in his heart to be reunited with his family became greater than the fire that burned in his kiln, and Lopez began to plan his own exit. Because of his position and status in the art world, he had to be extremely careful in planning his departure. His brother in Argentina helped make arrangements for Lopez to personally bring a collection of Cuban art to Argentina to represent Cuba in a global exhibit of contemporary art. Knowing that he wouldn’t be returning, he brought only the work within his personal collection and even then, the Cuban government made it difficult for him to leave the country.
Arriving nearly penniless, Lopez stayed in Argentina only long enough to earn the money he needed to seek asylum in America. He was commissioned to create an enormous mural of a mask in front of the gallery where the exhibition was presented. From Argentina, Lopez traveled through Peru, San Salvador, Guatemala and Mexico before being granted asylum in the United States on June 7, 2007. One year and a day after he had begun planning his escape, he finally joined his family in Palm Coast.
Gallery entrance Argentina
“The entrance to a gallery in Córdoba, Argentina, created by Paredes to help earn money to get from Argentina to the U.S.” Photo courtesy Uldis López Paredes.
A year has passed and López Paredes is still washing dishes. His new community has come to his aid, donating the basic tools he needs to create his art, including a kiln and studio space. In return, with the assistance of volunteer interpreters, he has conducted free workshops for local teachers, made presentations on his art and his journey to the US, and created the “Legacy” sculpture to help raise funds for the local jazz society. But despite the mutual love affair with this laidback Florida community, he has not been able to find a better job, so the maestro continues to perform the menial labor to which he has found himself relegated in this country.
He is no stranger to adversity. In Cuba when faced with the severe shortage of art supplies and materials, he and his fellow artists would invent ways to use found objects and natural substances to create everything from the pigment for their paints to basic equipment. “Forced by necessity, we continue to grow, to learn and to face challenges,” Lopez Paredes explained during an interview with noted American ceramicist Catherine Merrill in an article that appeared in Clay Times magazine in 2006 while he was still living in Cuba. The article described how López Paredes had created an ingenious potter’s wheel using the differential from an old Chevy, a broken sewing machine, an antique hinge, and a Russian motor. He and his fellow artists delighted in making something from nothing, and creating art from what others considered trash.
But the solutions needed to overcome the difficulty he faces here in the US requires more than his creativity. There are factors outside his control. His irregular work schedule prevents him from attending regular English classes and his lack of English has made it impossible for him to find another job even though he says he is willing to do anything as long as there are regular hours so he could learn the language and still have time to work on his art. The studio he uses is only accessible during business hours so he often works into the wee hours of the morning in his father’s small garage. Although he admits that current circumstances are taking their toll, his creative spirit and determination to succeed remain strong. “It’s frustrating,” he agrees, “but it’s the beginning of the process of rebuilding my life in this country. It’s necessary.”
Meanwhile, throughout the world and especially in this country, the market for Cuban art is growing. There is intensified optimism concerning possible changes in the harsh embargo that makes travel and trade between the two countries difficult even when possible. If he had stayed in Cuba, his art may have commanded even more attention from curators and collectors. López Paredes still loves his former country, but he values his and his family’s freedom more, and for that he is willing to pay the price. “The art is within me,” he says. “I only need the time to create it.”
