Rosa Brítez

Infobox Artist
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name = Rosa Brítez


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birthname = Rosa Brítez
birthdate = April 9th, 1941
location = Ita, Paraguay
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nationality = Paraguayan
field = Clay work
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awards = Named Ceramist of the year, United States, 1989

Rosa Brítez is a popular Paraguayan artisan, born in Ita , city of the Central Department of Paraguay, on April 9, 1941.She has a very particular style and she dedicates to mold in clay decorative and representative figures of her country. These objects are very valued in Paraguay as well as in other countries.

Childhood and Youth

She is the daughter of Ramona Brítez. She was an orphan , her mother died when she was only six years old, and she was taken care by her aunt Simiona Caceres de Farias, widow, and she received her first instruction in the clay molding from her.She attended the school until the third grade of Elementary, when her uncle and aunt decided that she needed to learn something else. Therefore from the age of nine she dedicated herself to what was to be her passion during all her life, clay molding and pottery.Her first creations were water containers, plates, and different objects of simple shapes. Little by little she discovered the possibilities of clay and her figures became more complex shapes and structures.

Her work

When she was 23 years old, her work became artistic. Then the first plates for the wall appeared, with the shapes of the moon and the sun, with the style that identifies her. From that time are also her creations of Paraguayan animals, such as the tatu bolita, her carts, jars with grapes and other objects that call the attention for their originality in shapes and textures.Later on, this artisan presented some polemic and very attractive figures with the shapes of couples in love, represented in the Kamasutra, obtaining great acceptance in the Paraguayan public and abroad. According to her , when she was in the Expo Sevilla in 1982, the king of Spain Juan Carlos I , bought all of her collection.

In her house located in Ita, Doña Rosa has arranged a little galery . Normally, she receives the visit of many people, offering them besides her art , the warmth of the attention.Rosa Britez has made several expositions , both national and international. In her trips, she takes the mission to show her art as well as her country all over the world.

Works

Awards and Distinctions

Her style

Her work has fundamentals in what really motivates this ceramist, her strength and her will power to continue enriching the ceramics in Paraguay. In her daily work, one can see her effort in a very competitive activity, she is creative and productive.She only has a stick of tacuara, a spoon, a little stick and some orange leaves. Doña Rosa creates fantastic shapes of clay, from the figures of Paraguayan mythology, plates representing the sun and the moon, Christmas houses, animals, and characteristic persons of the Paraguayan culture. The Paraguayan music sounds all the time in her humble workshop, and she looses herself in time, and dedicates hours to the creation of objects.

" I relax when I work and I even forget everything, it`s so tranquilizing a different sensation, she says.

Rosa Brítez says : “ I am what I am because I do whatever I want with the clay. The culture is an action, not only ideas and thoughts. Even writing is an activity that has a lot of artisan. The work of art is a product that you can see and touch, or hear and taste. Because of this there is a culture of the good taste which is the one in consonance with the feeling of the people. The culture of Paraguay is what makes our selves, is ñande reko “ Doña Rosa is capable of making objects just looking at images related to the faces of the people. Also, she creates jars, turtles, fish, masks, and other 100 types of different moldings.

Her family

She is married to Emiliano Quintana, she had 13 children, 10 of which are boys and 3 girls. These gave her 27 grandchildren, besides several great grandchildren. Doña Rosa is considered in her country a testimony of the abnegation of the Paraguayan women, who educated her children with her artisan work, with sacrifice and a great charisma

References

* La Magia de nuestra tierra. Fundación en Alianza. Asunción.2007
* EVP - Wikipedia
* [http://www.evp.edu.py/index.php?title=Portada Enciclopedia Virtual Paraguaya - Portal]

External links

* [http://www.ppn.com.py/ PPN]
* [http://www.paxraguay.blogspot.com/2007/07/hecho-mano.html/ paxraguay.blogspot]
* [http://www.senatur.gov.py/region1.php?language=1 Paraguay Tourism Department]