Oral History Interview with Adela Akers, 2008 March 4-6
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Oral history interview with Adela Akers, 2008 March 4-6 Funding for this interview was provided by the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Funding for the digital preservation of this interview was provided by a grant from the Save America's Treasures Program of the National Park Service. Contact Information Reference Department Archives of American Art Smithsonian Institution Washington. D.C. 20560 www.aaa.si.edu/askus Transcript Interview Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project For Craft and Decorative Arts in America Interview with Adela Akers Conducted by Mija Riedel At the artist's studio in Graton, CA March 4 and 6, 2008 Preface The following oral history transcript is the result of a tape-recorded interview with Adela Akers on March 4 and 6, 2008. The interview took place at the artist's studio in Graton, Caifornia, and was conducted by Mija Riedel for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. This interview is part of the Nanette L. Laitman Documentation Project for Craft and Decorative Arts in America. Adela Akers and Mija Riedel have reviewed the transcript and have made corrections and emendations. The reader should bear in mind that he or she is reading a transcript of spoken, rather than written, prose. MIJA RIEDEL: This is Mija Riedel interviewing Adela Akers at the artist's studio in Graton, California, on March 4, 2008, for the Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. This is disc number one. And we thought we'd just start with a little overview of your incredible studio here, which is in an old apple barn. ADELA AKERS: That's right, yeah. They used to preserve or dry apples in this building. It's a small building, I mean, a small warehouse — MS. RIEDEL: Right. MS. AKERS: But that was what was supposed to be going on in here a long time ago. I'm not sure how long ago that was. MS. RIEDEL: It's clearly an old building, old stone building. MS. AKERS: Yeah, right, yes, right. MS. RIEDEL: And cool in here. MS. AKERS: Yeah, it is very nice. MS. RIEDEL: And you moved here in '95 after you retired from Tyler School of Art [Temple University, Elkins Park, PA]. MS. AKERS: I moved to Guerneville [CA] in 1995, but I opened the studio here in 1998. MS. RIEDEL: Okay. MS. AKERS: I worked out of my house for a while until I realized I needed the bigger space. I've always had my studio at home, so this was quite a move for me to move someplace else to work. I was invited to come and see a show in this building. There's a little gallery at the other end. I came to see the show, and I met the woman artist, Cindy Cleary, and she had a studio here. And I said, well, do they ever have studios here? And she said, oh, every once in a while; so I'll introduce you to the manager. Well, a month later, I had my studio. Somebody was moving out. Because I thought maybe it will take a year, you know. See, this area, there is no industry, so I knew I could never find a big warehouse like you would in Berkeley [CA] or Oakland [CA] or even in Santa Rosa [CA]. I didn't want to go that far. So this was an ideal location. I only live 14 miles away, and it's all back roads through vineyards and apple orchards and just wonderful country. MS. RIEDEL: It's beautiful this time of year. MS. AKERS: Yeah, yeah, it is very nice. MS. RIEDEL: And you're about an hour and 15 minutes to San Francisco. MS. AKERS: That's right. MS. RIEDEL: Yeah. MS. AKERS: Because, basically, I'm a city person. And when we moved to the country, we knew we had to be close enough to the city, even if we don't go, to know that we can go for the day. MS. RIEDEL: Right. MS. AKERS: And we did. That's something — we went for the day, you know. MS. RIEDEL: Yes. MS. AKERS: And so sometimes we have a place to stay. We have a friend; we can stay; so we can stay over where it's basically an hour and a half at the most. And that is emotionally convenient, you know. MS. RIEDEL: [Laughs.] MS. AKERS: Because even if you don't do it — MS. RIEDEL: Right. MS. AKERS: — you just know that it's possible. So that's one reason to be in Guerneville. And also it's close to the ocean. It's only 12 miles to the ocean. That's very nice. MS. RIEDEL: That makes sense in terms of your work, too. MS. AKERS: Yeah, yeah, right, yeah. MS. RIEDEL: Well, this is definitely a chapter of your life here. MS. AKERS: Yes. MS. RIEDEL: And we thought we'd start at the beginning chapter — MS. AKERS: Okay. MS. RIEDEL: — and go back to — you were born in Spain? MS. AKERS: I was born in Santiago de Compostela. MS. RIEDEL: Yeah, in 19 — what year? MS. AKERS: Nineteen thirty-three. MS. RIEDEL: What was your birth date, the day? MS. AKERS: February 7, 1933. MS. RIEDEL: Okay. MS. AKERS: And it's a wonderful town; it's a historical town, and it's a place of pilgrimage, and it's a college town, so it's a place that we always go back and visit, you know. My parents are gone, but I have aunts and uncles and lots of cousins in the area, not necessarily in Santiago but in the area. MS. RIEDEL: And they still live there. MS. AKERS: Yeah, yeah. MS. RIEDEL: What were your parent's names? MS. AKERS: My parents' name — my mother was Varela — V-A-R-E-L-A — and my father's name was Lloret — L- L-O-R-E-T. He came from the eastern part of Spain, from the Mediterranean coast, from Valencia, and my mother from Galicia, which is where I was born. MS. RIEDEL: Okay. And do you have siblings, Adela? MS. AKERS: I have one brother who lives outside of Chicago [IL]. MS. RIEDEL: Okay. MS. AKERS: He's a retired accountant. MS. RIEDEL: And what's his name? MS. AKERS: Rafael. MS. RIEDEL: Okay. Do you have memories of Spain? I know you left when you were young — four? MS. AKERS: I was too young. When I went back for the first time, after many years, after I was a woman, an adult, I thought maybe something will click, that I would remember. But no, I didn't. I just mostly remember through the memories of what I had been told, the stories from my parents. And I kept correspondence with my cousins in Spain all the time. I always felt like I wanted to go back, you know. MS. RIEDEL: Interesting. MS. AKERS: I think my brother adjusted to being in Cuba more than I did. He was five years older. For me it was more like — when we moved to Cuba in 1937 because of the civil war in Spain, the idea was we were just moving for a couple of years, until things settled in Spain, and we were going to go back. So maybe in my mind that was another thing, is that we knew we were going to go back. MS. RIEDEL: Right. MS. AKERS: I knew I wanted to go back. MS. RIEDEL: Even so young? MS. AKERS: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think I missed my grandparents and, you know, family kind of thing. MS. RIEDEL: Did you have — MS. AKERS: Because then when we moved to Cuba, we were very poor. We lived in one room, and I think I missed having a nicer house. I was only four, so I couldn't analyze anything political. MS. RIEDEL: Right. MS. AKERS: At that point, it was more like, what are we doing in this one room, you know? MS. RIEDEL: [Laughs.] MS. AKERS: So I think it was more like a big adjustment financially. And then finally, we just stay and stay, because [Francisco] Franco stay and stay. MS. RIEDEL: Right. MS. AKERS: And so we settled in Cuba, and I went to college and all that. MS. RIEDEL: Were you in Havana proper? MS. AKERS: Yeah, it was in Havana. We were always in Havana. For a year or so, we lived in another town, but most of the time, we lived in Havana. It was a wonderful city and lots of opportunities. My mother was able to get a job; my father got a job and then eventually had a business. So you know, it was a pretty good life. MS. RIEDEL: What did he do? I know your mom was a seamstress, right? MS. AKERS: My mother worked as a seamstress, but then they had a business in Cuba. It was an import business dealing with materials for bakeries and decorative material. It would be almost like a party shop today, you know. But they had all kinds of more industrial-type needs for bakeries, you know, products. So it was an interesting business. And the reason they got into that business was because my father was working with a company that did that. So once they decided, well, we could have our own little company, it was a small business, and then they had two employees and my mother and father. My father would travel to other towns and sell some of the stuff, and my mother ran the business.