cucobooks
Who are we?
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Lyssa Orchid and Laura Lleal are mothers, artists and adventurers.
Lyssa Orchid was born in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, and lived there for one year. After Cuba, Lyssa's parents moved her all over the east coast of the US, finally settling in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She attended Cox High School and finished at Norfolk Academy. She then attended Denison University where she majored in English Literature and Studio Art. She spent a memorable semester in Florence, Italy studying art at SACI. After graduating from college, Lyssa lived in Taos, Vail and Los Angeles. During her 7 years in LA she worked in film production, acted in film and TV and worked in PR at iFilm. She also taught art at Brentwood School. Lyssa's first daughter was born in Los Angeles in 2001. Shortly thereafter they moved to Daufuskie Island, South Carolina, where Lyssa taught art and worked diligently to start a non-profit conservancy (Daufuskie Island Conservancy). She and her husband D'Arcy Young moved to Dallas, Texas, where Lyssa has taught art privately and volunteered numerous hours to non-profits. Lyssa gave birth to her second daughter in 2007; she devotes most of her time to being the mother of two girls. Lyssa has always been passionate about art and the education and advocacy of the arts for children.
Laura Lleal was born in Barcelona, Spain. From 1989 to 1994, she attended the Elisava, Superior School of Design in Barcelona, where she studied Industrial Design. During her student years Laura became an avid wood worker and welder. Briefly after her graduation in 1994, she went to New York, were she worked at the workshop of the renowned Italian artist and architect Gaetano Pesce. During this time she produced her photography series of New York skylines.
In the year 2000 she enrolled as a full time student at the New York Art Students League, where she studied sculpture.
In 2002 she was awarded with a scholarship to enroll at the Art Studio School in New York as a full time sculpture student.
She lived in New York for 13 years, where she continued to work in architectural design, continually traveled around the world and started her sculpting career.
In 2006 she moved to Dallas, Texas. From 2006 to 2009 Laura has been working on her first installation of work composed of sculptures, self-portraits and poems. Laura lives in Dallas with her three children, and steals time whenever she can to travel the world.
Why did we pick the name cuco?
Cuco is Catalan for "cute" or "crafty." Laura's third son's nickname is "Cuco." We love the little guy and the interpretation perfectly fits our business. - For cute, crafty and unique kids