Miguel Ángel Lasierra Tamé

Lasierra, a professional in construction management, was laid off, along with many others, during Spain’s economic crisis. He had never before made art, nor had he studied it.

About fifteen years ago he purchased a field on the outskirts of Utebo, near the city dump, which was full of garbage and weeds. He built a little cabin at the end of the property, and then—while also putting in a swimming pool, fruit trees, and lovely vegetable garden—decided to ornament parts of the cabin, at that time only working on weekends. He started laying the floor, primarily using whole tiles that he found at the dump, and then went on to use broken pieces of tiles to sheath the fireplace hood. He liked how it looked so much that he then ornamented a table with this same trencadís technique.

Although he has only been working on this site for five or six years as of this writing (and, although currently unemployed, many hours of his days are consumed taking the grandchildren to and from school and helping them out), he has already completely covered the exterior façades of the little house that faces the garden, setting off the different sections with images of humorous figures, primarily caricatures of farmers engaged in their tasks, including hauling water and driving tractors. As his grandfather was a farmer, Lasierra has a particular affinity with this vocation and, in fact, has ornamented the interior of the little house with some of his inherited implements (including a carved wooden yoke), and the garden itself displays two full-size gaily painted carts such as those his grandfather used to use.

Lasierra has taught himself how to build and ornament the various structures in his garden, although, of course, as a construction manager, he had a general understanding of how things go together. Among the major elements of the site are a bench with two ducks “kissing,” and a monument to the bicycle, a memory of when his kids were younger and he used to fix their bikes, accompany them to their sporting events, and make trophies for them. These larger works are constructed with an infrastructure of concrete block, then covered with standard terra cotta bricks, and, finally, sheathed in trencadís ceramic tiles. His craftsmanship is excellent, and, with much more room left in the field for additional constructions, he has many ideas for additional works for the future.

~ Jo Farb Hernández, 2014 

Jo Farb Hernández

Utebo, Aragon, 50180 es
Latitude/Longitude: 41.7087277 / -0.9986738

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