University of Iowa 3D Design Program head Monica Correia blends art with the natural world
Paris Barraza(Editor's Note: This is the third of a five-part series profiling artists that identify as Latino/a/x in Johnson County. These will be published each of the next five Fridays during Latinx or National Hispanic Heritage Month, which celebrates the histories, cultures and contributions of those who came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America.)
Growing up in Rio de Janeiro, a Brazilian city nestled between dense greenery and the Atlantic Coast, Monica Correia was surrounded by the natural world.
The plants, the birds, the trees — it’s where movement comes from, she said, and the culture was equally alive.
In her eyes, Rio de Janeiro was saturated with color, vibrant. It was practically summer all year, Correia said.
When Correia later moved to Iowa, she found that her childhood in Rio de Janiero influenced her interests as an artist.
“I have this belief that everything outside is just gorgeous,” Correia said.
Correia is a designer based in Iowa City who creates pieces like furniture, lighting and more, working with materials like resin, wood, plastic — just to name a few.
She is also the head of the 3D Design Program at the University of Iowa.
Correia works with organic forms to express the fleeting movement found in dance, music and nature. By organic forms, she means that instead of working with straight lines and harsh edges, she is drawn to creating works that are rounded, that have curves.
“And most things in nature are curved,” she said.
All of her works have stories.
Take the Lampyris collection, a series of lamps inspired by the form and light of fireflies. Or, the Ventosa collection, made up of vases, bowls and pitchers inspired by octopus suckers.
Nature is always changing, Correia said, pointing out how, although it may look the same, plants grow, die and repeat the cycle.
It’s a dance, she said.
“It's music. It’s present in the environment with the birds singing, with the plants moving,” Correia said. “It's just that we don't stop to appreciate these things. We should all make time.”
Her goal is to create things that are unique, and through her work, Correia gets to learn something new as she designs and builds her pieces.
But especially now, Correia said she is advocating for the environment.
“Everybody is on the phone,” she said. “I feel really sorry that people are passive. They are no longer active. They are not responding to what's outside.”
Moving to Iowa and finding a new passion
Correia’s background as an architect has provided a strong foundation for her other interests in art, she said.
But she always knew she wanted to do more in art and craft things.
She graduated with a degree in architecture from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and worked in commercial interior design.
Her husband, a physician, had been invited to do research at the University of Iowa hospitals.
She came to Iowa City for the first time in 1997.
Correia had been designing interiors for stores and shopping malls in Brazil and Portugal, working at her own company and teaching at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
Within a handful of months, Correia had to depart from her work and bid her goodbyes, arriving in Iowa with nothing to do, she said.
Until she came across the MFA program for 3D Design at UI, at the time when course descriptions were printed in a catalog.
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“I was just flipping the pages and finding out what the University of Iowa had to offer and how that would connect, and that was actually the perfect fit because I said, ‘Oh, now I have a chance to do the art that I never had the time to do,’” Correia said.
She and her husband returned to Brazil in 2000, and she went back to teaching and working independently.
Two years later, she received a call that set her on a new path.
“My former mentor called me, and he said, ‘I'm retiring, and I want you to apply for my job,’” Correia said. “That came from nowhere.”
How teaching at UI stimulates Correia’s artistry
In 2003, Correia was back at UI as a teacher.
“Teaching is something that was unexpected to me. I had no plans on becoming a teacher when I was an undergrad student,” she said.
Correia had worked at an architect firm in Brazil before teaching.
When an intern there noticed Correia had an affinity for teaching, it spurred Correia to think about the possibility and led her to an adjunct position at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro.
“What I love about teaching is the energy, and the students are fresh, young and they challenge with every new idea that they have,” Correia said. “I love that challenge on the daily basis.”
It's particularly challenging because Correia isn’t teaching a subject where there is only one correct answer.
She poses it like this: You’re in a room with 18 students. Each student has a different design. Each design has a different problem.
That means Correia must use her know-how to solve 18 individual problems.
“That is a big exercise for my brain and for my creativity,” she said.
Correia’s research impacts her teaching.
When she worked with 3D printing, she decided to introduce it to the program at UI.
Finding the balance between her responsibilities as a professor, program head and an artist can be difficult.
Correia will intentionally set aside time in her schedule for her art and her research.
“This is the best strategy I found so far,” she said.
Making unconventional art
To make a piece of furniture or an object requires an investment of time.
An idea for something is born, but then you must figure out how to create it. You must decide on the materials to use, and each material may require a unique process in order to apply it to your design.
Correia understands that it can feel like there are barriers in the way of making something. She encourages people to always try to overcome that barrier.
As a child, Correia always tried everything she was exposed to, like sculpting and drawing.
But one thing she has always loved to do was hang things.
“Maybe because it's cool to look up and then you see the trees,” Correia said. “This sensation of being able to stop and look up, because we never do that, it's sort of an unusual perspective.
“I like to change people’s angle of perception,” she said, explaining that she wants her work to make people walk around it, to sit differently or make them look up. “So my design, as I would call (it), is unconventional.”
Paris Barraza covers entertainment, lifestyle and arts at the Iowa City Press-Citizen. Reach her at PBarraza@press-citizen.com or (319) 519-9731. Follow her on Twitter @ParisBarraza.