HKfamCollection: Susana Espinosa, Dyslexia & the Hidden Monster

In 2001, I was at the Alameda Antique Market with my mother hunting down our usual obsessions. For me, back then it was vintage California Handprint tablecloths and Tom & Jerry Sets. Randomly I had found a tile  at an art stall, sitting in a box with a few other tiles. Why did I grab this tile? The image on the tile was side portrait of a person, figure of imagination or simply a character. The imagery was familiar and the artist style was right out of the 70’s. The tile was setup on a antique plate hanger for display and the hanger was just as old as the tile, if not older. This tile would hang in my apartment for almost 5 years before making it up onto the wall of our master bedroom for the past 20 years.

When I saw this stylized portrait tile, I saw immediately a character I had spent almost my entire childhood and adulthood seeing on ceiling of my childhood bedroom. Growing up my twin bed was angled in one corner of the bedroom and above it was an imaginations best friend. Almost all the ceilings in our house were finished with a skip trowel technique, seen in 80% of homes in the US. Shapes, clouds, figures, nature, you name it if you can see it or dream it up. Monsters always had a strong presence in my childhood. I can spend decades unpacking what the origins are for such vivid imagination of a child. My siblings might say it’s connected to my mother. Instead, I hold onto those moments and images to gather my own stories and adventures as memories. I took a photo of the image right before my mother sold our childhood home back in 2022 (see below.) I also grabbed a few photos of my room empty, and during my childhood. Around 1978 my mom decided I was into model airplanes. Mind you it was my father and brother who loved building them. I wasn’t allowed to even touch the ones they had handing in my room.

As far as I can remember in that house, my bed was always positioned in that one corner. There was an attempt to change the location by myself and once by my mother. That I do remember! The first time, I missed seeing my monster in the ceiling and moved the furniture back to it’s usual location. When my mother moved the furniture a few years later. Within a week, I had moved it all back. I missed seeing the monster and the stories spun in my imagination. The monster was never given a name, the monster never scared me and I am sure when I pointed it to my friends, siblings or my husband they all thought I was nuts.

The tile was practically intact, with only one chip on the edge top edge. The tile was beautifully painted in color palette as rich as the 1970’s. From the earthy red tones, to the green heart on the figures chest. While it might not look like a monster to most, to me it was the monster without it’s mouth open. To most the figure is a woman with curly hair or her hair rolled up in curlers. There are no markings on the back of the tile but the artist signed the tile with “Espinosa 74” in the glaze. The tile had a lot of mystery, and even in the early days of the internet in the early 2000’s, finding the artist I thought, was difficult. When I started building my artwork database around 2010, I attempted to find the artist and their work. Even during COVID when I did another cleanup of the database, I thought I couldn’t find the artists work online.

Fast forward to a month ago, and my oldest and I were laying in my bed talking about her move to college and all of that was to come. Looking at me while I was pontificating about the adventures that lay ahead. She noticed the tile piece hanging on the wall. She asked about its origins and I told her simply about how I could never find the artist or any of the other works. She watched as I typed in Espinoza into the search field on my phone, and she quickly corrected me. As it turns out, my dyslexia had gotten the best of me. For 25 years I had searched for the wrong name. Changing that last name to the correct spelling resulted in a treasure trove of finding of the amazingly talented Susana Espinosa and her long career in the pottery world of art. Looking over her catalogue spread over the internet, my little tile pale compared to the many pieces she produced throughout her 70+ year career. I even managed to find several tiles that were produced the same year as mine. I never found any record of my tile being sold online.

I managed to find this tile that was sold at Auction.

Espinosa earned an art degree in Argentina and eventually migrate throughout the gulf of Mexico, finding her final home in Puerto Rico where built another studio/school, continuing her career teaching ceramic arts, before passing away recently in 2022. She was commissioned many time for projects throughout her career. The one that stuck out to me was the Torre Mural located at the Baccardi Distillery in Puerto Rico. The architecture and her tile work reminds me of works by Frank Lloyd Wright from 30’s to the 50’s. Her eye for shading and contrast is not only noticeable in her pottery pieces but even the Torre obelesque she created.

What I love about the characters that Espinosa creates in her hand molded figures, plates and tile work. While my tile measures only 4”x 9”, some of her tile work is the size of professional paintings like 20”x 40”. During my research of Espinosa’s work, I ran across an indepth interview done with Espinosa and several artists in the group collaborative she formed over 30 years ago in Puerto Rico. The charchters she creates are even molded into her murals which are large tiles made. The characters melt into tiles of organic symbolism and even set with in brutalist style tiles that provide a contrast with her imagination. These murals are massive in size, and dare I say that I even see references from the murals of the amazing Mary Blair. That coincidence is amazing because I drew from Mary Blair and Frank Lloyd Wright for the stain glass sun tunnel at HK5corner. The interview she does, she showcases her work in progress and I am completely in awe of her imagination and skill to bring it to life.

Espinose in her studio in Puerto Rico in 1968 with her partner Bernardo Hogan.

Now reflecting on this piece, sitting with my now college freshman and realizing that I still suffer from dyslexia but on a level where something so small as a printed name on an artists tile, can trigger it. A simple “s” in my memory, was turned into a “z”. It reminds me of a meeting I sat with my mother once during my elementary school years. My mother was listening to the reading resource teacher, tell her that I didn’t need to continue coming to the reading program because I was testing at level and the district was not going to cover the cost for me to be in the reading room. My mom tells the story, I came home asking to stay in the classroom and working with the teacher and the students. What my mother learned in that meeting, I was now helping the younger students with their reading. I remember the teacher asking in front of me, if it was okay to pull me out of class to help her once a week possibly. I remember doing this for fifth and sixth grade. The other memory from this meeting was the teacher reminding my mother, I will possibly be living with dyslexia for the rest of my life and I will struggle to focus reading books or long text documents. And wow was she write. What was crazy, she also mentioned I won’t have a problem actually writing long format papers or content. Editing it is another story.

This tile was from 1971.

One of the last things I feel in love with in Espinosa’s work over her lifetime, was her work in costume design in the theater. I shared the video with a friend of mine in Mexico City. This piece is probably one of my treasured pieces in the collection. I hope one day, one of my kids will want this piece. No matter what, it was a great investment. I remember paying $10 for the tile and I believe right now, that size tile is selling for $500+ with the colors used in the tile. The piece now lives in our master bedroom, because it’s one of the safest places for the pieces. I really should frame the piece and really protect it. I did at one point try to replace the plate hanger with a newer one, but I am so scared to stretch the spring over a tile that is now 52 years old. Another reminder of my age, for when I get old, I can look at the piece and do the math in my head to my age. For now it will hang as is, but some day I do need to find a safer hanging contraption. This was a real find, and will continue to be cherished.