Woman Turns Pieces Of Life Into Art
The pieces of Andra Uecke’s (say “eek-y”) life fit together so well after her divorce that she decided to sell them.
People bought and begged for more.
Andra cut photos she’d saved into various shapes and used them for eye-catching paper mosaics.
Visualize: a 12-inch trout with Andra’s mother’s sandy beach for its topside and the burnt orange of overexposed photos for its underbelly. Its eyeball is the fencing around a game at Chuck E. Cheese’s Pizza, while its fin is the family toucan’s foot. Threads of gold ink connect it all.
It sounds bizarre. But Andra’s art titillates the eye. Andra builds a conventional form, such as a horse or a kingfisher, from hundreds of abstract forms.
Every component of her trout or horse invites study. Even the shadows and background are full of surprises - heads, real estate signs, boats, cityscapes.
Each mosaic takes weeks, even months, of cutting and fitting. Andra, 37, and her two daughters would starve in their Coeur d’Alene home if they depended on the sale of Andra’s original work. So she had prints made of each mosaic, including her early works in hand-painted paper, and attached them to stationery cards.
Those cards caught the attention of the Caryl & Marilyn show. That talk-show pair invited enterprising mothers to share their ideas a few months ago. Andra sent samples.
“I’ve sent cards to Oprah (Winfrey). I keep them in my purse,” Andra says. “You do what you need to do.”
Caryl and Marilyn flew her to Los Angeles two weeks ago so Andra could show her work with a few other select mothers.
“I was on only two or three minutes, but it was very nerve-racking,” she says. “I can’t even remember what I said. It was so quick, like your wedding day.”
Producers haven’t decided yet when the segment will air. “It’s not fast enough for me,” Andra says.
Her art pays for itself, but she depends on part-time office work, laundry work and baby-sitting to feed her family.
“People ask what I’d do if I got an order for 5,000 cards,” Andra says.”I’d take care of it. That’s a good problem.”
Wrong, wrong, wrong
The Kiwanis Club of the Idaho Panhandle worked its tail off to organize Coeur d’Alene’s terrific playground-building project, but I gave credit in Wednesday’s column to another Kiwanis chapter. Smack me on the head with a tire swing.
Acting out
School is winding down, which means a lot of kids too young to work will have nothing to do soon. So why not let them sing and dance away the summer?
The Lake City Playhouse produces a summer camp that channels kid energy onto the stage. After 10 days of workshops in singing, dancing, staging, auditioning, constructing sets, miming and improvising, these campers will perform “Oz: Forever.”
Never heard of it? Envision Dorothy at age 70.
The first of the two summer sessions starts June 16. Call 667-1323 for details.
High water
Some strange things are floating on the high waters of Lake Coeur d’Alene. I saw a tipping duck blind near Silver Beach, someone’s old running shoes (I assume they were old) and a red water cooler. I hope a rampaging creek didn’t pull these treasures out of someone’s yard.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve seen floating near your home? Flush it out for Cynthia Taggart, “Close to Home,” 608 Northwest Blvd., Suite 200, Coeur d’Alene 83814; or send a fax to 765-7149, call 765-7128 or send e-mail to cynthiat@spokesman.com.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo