– with the Ceramic Artist Corina Emy-
In a cycle of interviews with people who give us hope, vision, grace, those whom I have called metaphorically „Edelweiss flowers”, today, dear friends, we meet an artist. An artist in handmade ceramics known as Corina Emy, her full name Corina Emy Ştefănescu.
Coffee, Tea, Food&Me: Corina Emy?
Corina Emy: Yeaaah. When I was a little girl, a good friend told me that Corina, my first name, is my rational, procedural and logical part, and Emy is the artistic, emotional, more chilly-willy side of mine. Until a few years ago, over the course of nearly 20 years, I have well known mostly Corina. In recent years, I’ve added Emy too. I feel complete in these two fine coordinates.
Coffee, Tea, Food&Me: Painting? Ceramics?
Corina Emy: When I was very young, somewhere around the age of 2 or 3 years, on the lobby of my parents’ apartment from Braşov, a large drawn train appeared on the walls. Then, when we moved to a bigger house, I began to draw on the road little elephants. I had a passion, a special attraction for elephants. So, everywhere, on or near my parents’ house, they started to appear. The little elephants.
Later, I witnessed a discussion of my parents with someone who told them that their daughter (me) had the hands of an artist. I retained the panicked figure of my mother who probably told herself that I would starve to death as an artist. So, somehow, I gradually learned to restrain myself from doing something with my hands (drawing elephants with a piece of chalk on walls, on the road, on the house, besides the house …). I became, easily, very Corina. So I worked, for 20 years, in corporations.
Coffee, Tea, Food&Me: How did you find Emy after so many years?
Corina Emy: Waiting for the right time. This moment came naturally several years ago. After I gave birth to my little son, through a contest of stories, desires, I began to paint. I started again to paint and step by step to find myself as a whole. Then, in few years, I wanted to feel my hands more anchored in creation. That’s how I got to clay. That’s how I got to fall in love with the pottery.
Then it started an inner storm: the procedure tells me that I should do somehow, the earth asked to be touched in a different way. I learned to reconcile them. My rational part with my emotional one. I have empathized, at a time, with each of them. Corina’s fight with Emy. Reconciliation. I followed my path. A path that I followed with inner reconciliation from a certain point. I grew up with ceramics.
Coffee, Tea, Food&Me: Who guided you in this adventure at first?
Corina Emy: Mr. Nicolae Moldovan. A well-known, accomplished Romanian artist, a perfectionist of very clearly defined forms, absolute perpendicularity, geometry. He had a tremendous patience with my struggle, he inspired confidence in my hands, showed me the way that I now passionately follow. It was like an initiatory journey, whose mentor retired to Timisoara exactly when, although I did not realize it, I was ready to fight and reconcile with myself, just as I am. I am deeply grateful to Mr Moldovan for his dedication and patience.
Coffee, Tea, Food&Me: How did you turn your passion into business?
Corina Emy: It’s hard at the beginning and I’m still deeply involved in this process of transformation. I mean, until I got in fact to work, I had to deal with all the bureaucratic steps of setting up a company, finding a bookkeeper, paying an accountant, completing and submitting all sorts of documents. Then I had to make a product presentation website, and after hiring someone to do it, I realized I also had to do a web-design course to make the site as I want it to. Unfortunately, it’s hard to please an artist …
Coffee, Tea, Food&Me: What are your plans and expectations?
Corina Emy: My plans are connected to my hands. 🙂 I want to use all my imagination and create original items, which are bringing joy for all our clients. Expectations?
More of an wishful thinking: to bring delight with my handmade ceramics to people all over the world. I see my dear Dinner Lace suite, the butterflies or the mugs&cups in a garden or in a house in Sweden, Lithuania, Czech Republic, Austria, Netherlands, United States or Australia with people enjoying it.
I want my clients to feel that they just purchased the perfect gift for a dear friend or family.
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