Candice Cepeda is a mosaic artist from Manila who has brought her art to Macau by creating pieces for the Barcelona and António restaurants in Taipa.
In a recent email interview with The Macau Post Daily, Cepeda explained how she got into mosaic art and her inspiration for some of her work.
Cepeda said that she first became interested in mosaic art when “I found a ‘how to’ mosaic book in a local bookstore. It was the lone mosaic book on the bottom shelf of the Arts and Crafts section but my eye was somehow drawn to it. This book really sparked my passion for mosaic”.
She went on to say, “I learned through self-study and, of course, by doing. There was a lot of trial and error. I remember making a set of mosaic bowls to give to friends for Christmas, and when I checked the one bowl I did keep for myself, I discovered that most of the tiles got dislodged! I had used the wrong adhesive! Thankfully, those friends are still my friends.
“I then started to sell simple mosaic frames and bowls at a Christmas bazaar. It was there I got my first commission [a fish mosaic round table with a 30” diameter] which was what gave me the confidence to work on bigger things. I haven’t stopped making mosaics since.”
Cepeda then decided, after years of self-study, to take her next step, and she went to learn more at the Art Students League of New York and then decided to continue her studies in London.
Cepeda said that “in London, I took a series of courses and then a one-year fine arts course at Central Saint Martins. At this stage, I wanted to focus on growing myself as an artist and challenging old notions of what’s possible in art through an interdisciplinary approach to learning and through exploring a wide range of different media from which to work. It was also here I learned to take the beginnings of an idea and grow it into something deeper. So apart from the actual drawing, there was a lot of writing and reflection involved – I jotted down my research, thoughts, and ideas and took those ideas into various directions, and then finally choosing which ones might be worth pursuing.
“I felt incredibly lucky to be studying against the backdrop of the vibrant and beautiful city of London. There was so much inspiration everywhere – in the museums, parks, pavements and street corners. Those days, it was not uncommon to find me sitting on a museum floor with a sketchbook in hand, drawing and learning from one of the great masterpieces in front of me”.
When asked what drew her to the different objects that can be used apart from the usual tiles, Cepeda said that it is the material, texture, and colour of different objects and how they gel with the normal mosaic tiles, and she loves using natural stones and especially the terracotta pots that are found in Manila, which give the mosaic an “earthy quality” are what attracts her to the different materials.
Cepeda said that she takes her inspiration from “music, conversations, books I’ve read, snaps I’ve taken on my phone of anything I find beautiful or I am in awe of. I am especially inspired by nature, I like the organic shapes one can find in nature, like the shapes of stones, the flow of water, the curve of a leaf, etc. – as opposed to harder lines”.
In Taipa Village, Cepeda has done murals for two restaurants – Barcelona and António.
Cepeda said of the projects, “for Barcelona, we created a mosaic mural irregular in shape where the name “Barcelona” was integrated into the design and which was installed on the façade wall of the restaurant. The António mosaic, the second project, was meant to be a centrepiece art work for the restaurant, and so we were looking to create a piece that was both dramatic and bold. Something striking.
“My hope is that the work adds to the dining experience at António by celebrating a bit of Portugal’s history through the caravel ship in mosaic”.
While António Restaurant, home of traditional Portuguese fare, is currently being renovated, Barcelona, a Spanish Tapas Bar and Restaurant, is open.
Currently, Cepeda is working on a mosaic “based on the miracle of the great catch of fish— when Jesus told the apostles to cast down their nets into deep water after a whole night of unsuccessful fishing. When they bring up the nets, they find that it is bursting with fish”, at the newly constructed Holy Family Pavilion in Angelfields, Silang, Cavite, southwest of Manila.
Photo provided by Candice Cepeda
Photos provided by Pamela Chan, Taipa Village
Photo taken from Candice Cepeda’s website http://candicecepeda.com/current-project
