Oaxaca Art Vacation in January an artful feast!

 Just back from another great trip to Oaxaca, Mexico for the January Art Vacation.  What's not to like about this city?   It is abundant with art, history, unique cuisine, lovely people, great artists and a veritable smorgasbord for the eye.  It would be worth a trip just to visit the numerous archeological sites like Monte Alban, Mitla, and Yagul some of which are world heritage sites and rich with artifacts from those cultures. We stayed at Casa Colonial, a hacienda style BandB within walking distance to everything.

Oaxaca is known for its artesanias - fine crafts including the famous black pottery, the wood carvings painted in intricate patterns, the rug weavers, and the cotton fabrics made by the women with a back strap loom just as their grandmothers had done.
We visited the villages where they practice their crafts and demonstrated their techniques although their work can be seen in shops around town.  Everyone loved walking the Centro Historico with its colonial architecture and filled with interesting shops, galleries and museums. And the most interesting grafitti ever! Ofcourse Oaxaca is also known for its food - mole sauces, chaupalines (grasshoppers!), squash blossom soup, tamales and more. It can be experienced on the cheap in the mercado or as a fine dining experience - we did it all!  Some of the group took Susan Trilling's cooking class on our free day and loved it - from the shopping at the mercado to the finished meal.  I have to admit - this is the Perfect Art Vacation!

 On this Oaxaca Art Vacation that I offer once or twice a year, you get to be a participant, not just come as a  viewer. After visiting Monte Alban, a Zapotec pyramid complex, for inspiration the first day, we visited San Agustin, Etla to take a papermaking workshop at Arte Papel Vista Hermosa on day 2.  Etla is a lovely town, but the centerpiece is the Centro de las Artes, a renovated textile mill that has become a major art center with incredible galleries and performance spaces.  We saw an exhibition by Francisco Toledo  and a huge group show of works made with natural materials - both were incredible.

Then we did a 5 day monotype workshop at Taller Rufino Tamano.  We usually have the place to ourselves since most of their classes are in the evenings.  After I gave a demonstration of various techniques, everyone began working.  We had beginners to advanced in this group and all in between with me facilitating in the printshop.  Wonderful monotype prints were created that we later exhibited at Casa Colonial.

"It was a terrific group of people and an awesome location for art and food.  The trip was the perfect mixture of structure and free time, of touring and art activities.  I had a wonderful time and hope to find a way to explore monotype further here."   Annette Colfax, Los Angeles, CA.

"Thanks for a wonderful trip.  I returned home refreshed, inspired and best of all with some new printmaking skills.  You are wonderful teacher and travel companion!"

Susan Gilchrist, Santa Cruz, CA.

 

Monotype Printing at Taller Rufino Tamayo

Some of the group on our first outing to Monte Alban, Zapotec Pyramid. 

Papermaking at San Agustin

At our final reception: Stella, Maryvonne, Annette, Pam, Glen, Sidney, Susan, Ginger, Shane, and Carol. (I think Sam must have been in pursuit of a margarita.)

San Agustin, Etla, view from the Centro de las Artes

New Large Scale Charcoal Drawings

'Seedling'

'Sweet Water'

These are two new charcoal drawings on amate, a Mexican handmade paper, that I recently finished. Each 4' x 4'.  I've been working on them since August.  I bought 2 4' x 8' pieces of amate in Patzcuaro this summer and cut them in half. It's a challenge working this large in charcoal - but it pulls you in, its a sensuous medium, fingers, rags, eraser, a push/pull of light and dark. Always moving, always changing. Charcoal is messy, it's difficult to really 'fix' it completely even though I do spray it with a fixative. But I love the rich blacks, the contrast, the cool greys and all in between. I based both pieces on some smaller images I created in Oaxaca.  Interesting how they transformed into this gran scale.

They are showing in Luna Gallery's December Exhibition in Mazatlan, Drawings: Line & Form.

New Prints Inspired by Monte Alban, Oaxaca

Artifact from Monte Alban

Coming soon, a book about my art and the sacred sites that have inspired my work over the last 15 years. Art and Sacred Sites: Connecting with Spirit of Place.

 

Outside of Oaxaca lies Monte Albán, an ancient Zapotec site with an impressive complex of pyramids and an expansive view of the countryside. Here I felt a sense of spirit, a sense of place. I was entranced by the multitude of stone monuments inscribed with figures and symbols, a hidden language whose forms interested me more than their meaning. Back in the studio, I found myself mixing and matching the vertical stacks of glyphs, circles, dots and wavy lines, and then pairing them with more feminine symbols such as the vesica piscis and the spiral. Perhaps it was my little cosmic joke to balance the yin to the yang, and thus provide a completeness and wholeness to these ancient images.

Another site that interested me was Mitla, a major religious center that reached its zenith between 750 and 1521. One can only imagine the rituals, rites and sacrifices performed by priests in the temple called House of the Vital Force.  But what sets Mitla apart from other pyramids in Mexico is its intricate mosaic stonework in geometric designs.  Throughout the complex, running spirals, zig-zags and chevrons embellish tombs, panels and entire walls. The contrast of the white design work, red earthen walls and blue sky was food for inspiration, and I created a series of paintings that seemed to capture the feeling of place, as well as a suite of small prints drawn from photos and memory.

Mitla

Saddened to hear of Oaxacan Artist Alejandro Santiago's death

Alejandro Santiago talking to Claudia Gallardo July 2012

     I was sad to hear that Oaxacan artist, Alejandro Santiago, died recently.  He was only 49 and at the peak of his art career.  I met him in Oaxaca last year when Claudia Gallardo, Mary Hunter and I knocked on his door on the outskirts of Oaxaca.  It's not something I would normally do, but we had just visited his sculpture gallery, La Telaraña, next door and were interested in seeing his print studio as well. The young man gallery sitting, assured it was ok.
     He welcomed us into his home and garden where there were quite a few people - family, friends, agents (?) all sitting around a huge wooden table that faced the garden. He offered us a tequila - but since it was early in the day, we declined.  Speaking in Spanish, he showed us his work - from large abstract figurative paintings, to small etchings,  to some of his 'Emigrante' ceramic sculptures.  This series consisted of  2501 clay figures and were installed in museums as an impressive installation.
He then walked us down the street to his print studio where he had litho and etchings presses and several people working on plates. Alejandro was a prolific artist with a distinctive style. In that short time with him, I felt his gentleness of spirit, his dedication to his art, and his willingness to share.  I'm honored that I met him. 

From the LA Times obit: "The story behind each clay migrant was a story that applied to all the other ghost towns in Mexico and other places with a large immigration history — in the end it was a tribute that the whole country needed," said Cruz, whose 2009 film "2501 Migrants: A Journey" explores global migration from the perspective of migrants and artists.
       In making the statues, Santiago fused aspects of pre-Columbian and modern art. Covered in elaborate markings that resemble tattoos, they are about three-quarters the size of a typical adult. Their faces are eerily misshapen. No two figures are alike."
http://articles.latimes.com/2013/jul/28/local/la-me-alejandro-santiago-20130729

A corner of his garden

One of his paintings

His print studio

One of his sculptures in the Garden

Solo Exhibition in Patzcuaro

Take a look at my exhibition, "Inspired by Nature"
Centro Cultural Antiguo Colegio Jesuita, Patzcuaro, Michoacan, Mexico
June 7 - August 7
A beautiful space! This is also where I went in February to do my large format monotype prints.

Oaxaca Art Vacation Summer 2013

I just returned from another fabulous trip to Oaxaca - a great city to explore art and creativity! I had 8 people join me for the 10 day trip and I'm pretty sure everyone was just as enthralled as I was. We stayed at Casa Colonial which immediately felt like our home away from home - a beautiful hacienda style B&B with extensive gardens, filled with folk art, and plenty of space to spread out.

Casa Colonial B and B

We visited Monte Alban on our first day out, a Zapotec pyramid complex, very impressive in its broad expanse of structures and views. I'm especially intrigued by the glyphs carved in stone which continue to show up in my artwork.

The next day we had our driver take us Centro de las Artes de San Agustin, Etla, a beautifully renovated  textile mill spearheaded by maestro Francisco Toledo. Down the hill in the papermaking studio, Angel taught us about the natural fibers from local flora that they used for the pulp. Doning plastic aprons and with the help of the master papermakers, everyone created their own sheets of paper which were delivered to our hotel 2 days later.

After seeing the sites around Centro Historico, and having been newly inspired, we were ready for five days of monotype printing at Taller Rufino Tamayo.  In the workshop there were beginners as well as advanced artists with everyone working at their own rate.  After my demonstrations, I work with each person to help them attain their vision in the finished print.  It's always nice to step back from the work and see the variety of approaches, so Karen and Veronica helped me mount an exhibition of the finished pieces at Casa Colonial.

What a treat it was to have a day on the road with our guide Coco and driver Miguel who took us to many of the Artesan villages outside of Oaxaca. Such beautiful work - from the textiles, to the ceramics, to the carved wooden figures.

Black Pottery demo in San Bartolo Coyotepec

At a Cochineal ranch, a tiny bug attached to Nopal cactus produces red dyes.

Shopping at a textile village

Dan, Glen, Virginia, Sara, Bill, Veronica, Joanne, Dana, Karen

Individually and in groups, we visited some great galleries and museums, heard classical and regional music and enjoyed the famous Oaxacan cuisine.  What a great city! I can't wait to go back in January where I will lead a group of Australian printmakers on another great art journey.

"Gracias for a wonderful printing and cultural experience. I would recommend your Oaxaca workshop to anyone who wants to do printmaking as well as emerge themselves in the historical, and cultural treasures of Oaxaca. The visits were well planned and the quality and atmosphere of Casa Colonial were superb. Thank you very much for your efforts."

Virginia Arnone, San Francisco, July 2013

"Thank-you for all the thought and effort you put into visiting Oaxaca, building a great workshop experience, and working with printmaking. You are a wonderful teacher and it was inspiring to watch you create prints and solve problems. Your work is wonderful."

Sara Ella Richardson, Emeryville, CA July 2013