Uwase is ‘married’ to art

From seemingly chaotic beginnings, she crafts pieces carefully, first working intuitively until an idea becomes visible. “You have seen my kind of art. I begin by cutting things out and putting things in,” 27-year-old Crista Uwase talks of her love. She says that her foray into art was a carefully considered option that hit her mind when she joined secondary school. “Most students rushed to sciences because that was what their parents advised them. But I wanted to do something that could broaden my mind. I chose humanity because there were broader things like religion, political science, art and history that made me appreciate the world in a more critical way,” she says. After finishing secondary school, Uwase had time to choose what she wanted to do with her life. Her father told her to go look for a college, and her mind raced to one thing: an arts college. That’s how she found herself at Nyundo School of Arts in Rubavu, Western Province. “The art bug had inflicted on me a deep passion and I couldn’t see myself doing anything else. I had fallen in love with art and there was nothing else that could separate us.” As soon as she graduated, it was time to hit the road. “My father bought me paint and brushes. He told me to discover what I could do.” Her search landed her at Ivuka Arts Centre in Kacyiru after walking aimlessly for the better part of the day in search of an art gallery. “I met a group of male artists there and when I told them my mission, they showed scant interest. They couldn’t believe there was a woman who wanted to do art,” she says. This transition from chaos to calm, where she takes discarded papers to create attractive pieces of art, equally describes part of her life. Uwase wearing a piece she made in college. (Courtesy photos) “When my father suffered a debilitating stroke in 2009 that left him in a coma when I was in the middle of enjoying my life as an artist, I felt betrayed. It was only him who could appreciate the fact that I was an artist,” says Uwase. “At that moment in my life, I found myself “in the wrong boat on the wrong sea” enrolling to Umutara Polytechnic to study accounting. My dad was paralyzed and it equally paralysed my ambition for art,” she adds. Despite graduating with a certificate in accounting, Uwase again found herself at Ivuka with a new ambition: to take art as her métier. She says her proudest moment in life as an artist was being chosen by Institut Francais of DR Congo, in collaboration with its Rwanda counterpart, to go and showcase what Rwandan female artists were capable of in the Democratic Republic of Congo. “The Women without Borders (the theme of the event on that year’s Women Day), wanted to showcase what women artists were capable of. I went to DRC and everybody who was at the event was very impressed by my collage pieces,” she says with a tinge of visible pride. For now, Uwase says she’s married to art and reading, and if a man comes into her life who shares equal enthusiasm, she can consider.

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Uwase is ‘married’ to art