Born April 28, 1930, Stephanie Helena Correia was the third of nine children born to Umbelina and Stephen Campbell. According to her daughter Anna Correia, in a 2018 lecture at the Moray House Trust (MHT), Stephanie Correia often accompanied her father and learned “how to whistle, about the plants and trees in the forest, and to fish” from him.
According to Petamber Persaud in “Remembering Stephanie Correia (1930-2000)”, Stephanie was 14 when she became a pupil teacher at Martindale R C Primary School. In a telephone conversation, Anna recalled that her mom reported paddling two miles each way, to and from school daily. When Stephanie’s family migrated to Georgetown in 1950, she attended Teacher’s Training College where she came under the influence of E R Burrowes. Anna recalled in her MHT presentation that Burrowes saw her mom’s abilities in drawing and painting, encouraged her to do more, and said to her “No sewing and craft for you.”
Eventually (as early as 1972) Stephanie began making figurative clay sculptures. Some of these were transformed to serve as the stems for lamps, with the lampshade made from tibisiri. Meanwhile, her ceramic pots were made using the pinch, slab, and coil methods, and “most […] were adorned with things from her heritage – beads, feathers, cotton twine, seeds, and petroglyphs. […] She did extensive research on the clays from different parts of Guyana. She learned how to take out the impurities, tested them, and knew where to find the best clay” (Anna Correia, MHT, 2018). In our telephone exchange, Anna explained that Stephanie experimented with ways of strengthening different clay bodies and suitable clay slips for decorating pots with longevity.
In 1974, Stephanie travelled to New York State for approximately two months to train in wheel throwing. She produced a number of stoneware pieces. Unfortunately, many were damaged in transit. Very few survived the indifference of luggage handlers and less-than-ideal packing. Undeterred by her losses, Stephanie Correia continued to work in clay producing “jewel boxes, effigies, wine sets, coffee sets, salad bowls, spice jars, pots, and more bowls” (Anna Correia, MHT, 2018). Correia incorporated in her work petroglyphs which she researched as to origins and meanings.
Although largely self-taught Stephanie Correia was generous in sharing what she knew about ceramics. In addition to teaching her children, she taught others including Irene Gonsalves and Desiree Fernandes. Gonsalves, Fernandes, and others from her class opened Lama Craft and they in turn taught others including Nicholas Young. Correia served as an examiner for the third-year Board of Studies exam at the E R Burrowes School of Art until the late 1990s. She was also a founding member of the Guyana Women Artists’ Association in 1987. Correia was awarded a Medal of Service (MS) in 1980 and the Golden Arrow of Achievement (AA) in 1996. Correia transcended in July 2000.
While in the foregoing paragraphs I focused briefly on Stephanie Correia the ceramist, in the following lines I wish to share a conversation Stanley Greaves and I had about her painting Kabakaburi Music. The painting is one of six in the Guyana National Collection which are part of a larger series based on her life. The conversation outlines some of the challenges of the medium, the composition, and references its relation to two specific Latin American Artists. The Conversation was previously published in this newspaper on December 6, 2015.
Stanley Greaves: Kabakaburi Music by Stephanie Correia is titled after the mission in the Pomeroon area. Correia herself was brought up at Santa Rosa. Her Dad made history by being the first Indigenous person to be appointed to the Legislative Council in the 1950s by the Governor. The painting is done in watercolours, not a favourite medium of artists, with good reason. Colours are affected by light, a serious problem in the tropics. Paper is also affected by mould and insects.
Akima McPherson: The medium of watercolour is indeed a difficult one requiring the layering of washes of colour – paint thinned with water, built up to suggest form and colour variations. Correia painted as a child and while at Teacher’s Training College in the 1950s was encouraged by E R Burrowes to focus her creative production on painting. From the early 70s she began to work with clay and around 1972 learned to throw on the wheel. Correia’s output in ceramic is well known and celebrated. Kabakaburi Music, for me, tells the Arawak creation myth, her story with art production as well as stories from her village experiences. The painting, therefore, simultaneously is based in mythology, the personal, and the historical. Interestingly, it has never evoked the sound of music whenever I have stood before it.
SG: Her brother did write a very moving song. He is well known in the USA for his songs. Correia’s composition breaks a conventional rule not to have things placed in the centre. It is, however, not too noticeable because of areas of interest surrounding it filled with a village scene and figures engaged in everyday tasks. I was somewhat put off by the truncated legs of the figure. Was she involved in an accident or was it Correia not wanting to disturb the composition by having legs disappearing at the bottom of the page – a more acceptable option to my mind.
AM: Feet are difficult to render in two-dimension. I’m guessing she was shying away from them so she folded the legs under at the knee and cloaked them. I’m not sure that your proposal would have worked as it could have thrown the visual balance of the composition off. Anyhow, anatomy is clearly a problem and it is most obvious in the large figure. One needs only consider the parts of the body not visible and how they fit under the cloak and with the other parts we do see. But there is enough within the composition of a decorative nature to distract from this technical issue and truncated legs. I also would have liked her to not centre the painting around the central vertical axis. By doing that Correia has made the painting restful and quiet, like an interlude. Consequently, I hear no music despite the drummers and dancers. The composition is nonetheless pleasing for me.
SG: Anything can be rendered two-dimensionally. The figure would work best if the garment was extended to the bottom along with the well rendered patterns. It would have more presence. The theme is relatively easy to read – no mysteries, perhaps the reason for our discourse on composition which is the foundation of any kind of creative work. Correia’s presentation reminds me of Rivera, the Mexican whose works emphasise two-dimensionality using a limited palette of colours.
AM: You are suggesting an entirely different figure – a standing figure. I saw the figure as seated.
