So, you are coming to Oaxaca for Day of the Dead!
Here is a chance to get beyond the sugar skulls and cemeteries, the masks and parades, and go deeper into the natural dye traditions of our wonderful region without leaving the city of Oaxaca.
Put your hands into the indigo dye bath. Watch them turn blue: A Day of the Dead Badge of Distinction. (OK, you can wash it off with soap and water, if you want.)
Blue hands, mark of distinction!
Natural dyes have been used by indigenous people of Oaxaca to color wool, cotton and silk for centuries. It thrives today among a small group of local artisans dedicated to preserving cultural history.
Blue Hands Special:
2-Day Day of the Dead Natural Dye Workshop
Sunday and Monday, October 28-29, 2017 OR
Friday and Saturday, November 3-4, 2017
10 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.
$250* per person, 4 participants maximum each session
*Bring a friend, get a discount, pay $225 for each
We are based in a Centro Historico neighborhood within walking distance (about six city blocks) from Oaxaca’s Zocalo — downtown plaza.
Plant materials and cochineal for making dyes, wool dye sampler
The hands-on workshop includes 10 hours of instruction to learn about Oaxaca´s natural dye traditions, materials and techniques used in the Central Valley of Oaxaca.
Natural dye sampler, another version
The workshop focuses on understanding how the chemistry of natural dyes act on the protein fibers (we use wool), and how this can be reproduced in your home or studio using local materials.
Pomegranate, great dye source
The workshop includes cochineal, indigo, pomegranate, marigolds, and brazilwood to create 16 different colors. Participant will receive recipes and put together a sampler of each natural dye color created on hand-spun 100% churro sheep wool.
Overdyeing wild marigold with indigo
Topics:
Sourcing local materials
Discussing Oaxaca natural dye traditions
Understanding fibers and how they react to dye
Mordanting, and how it works
Extracting color — sampling for intensity
Preparing the natural indigo vat
Dyeing and over-dyeing to get color range
Limited availability: 4 participants for each workshop
To register, contact: Norma Schafer, Oaxaca Cultural Navigator LLC
We will send you an invoice to pre-pay with PayPal. When we receive funds, we will confirm your registration and send you instructor contact information, and a map.
Natural dyes on cotton
The workshop includes instruction, all materials, recipes and the sampler. It does not include beverages, snacks or lunch. We suggest you bring your own if you get thirsty or hungry.
Blue hands in the dye bath
About the Dye Studio
We hold the dye workshops on the rooftop terrace of a home located in the City of Oaxaca, only 10 minutes walking from the main square of the capital. The studio was founded by two artisans, wife and husband, who are committed to preserving natural dye traditions. The wife is a native of Oaxaca City. The husband is a fourth generation member of a family of weavers and dyers in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca. Both are bilingual, speaking Spanish and English.
Acid and base chemistry for color changes in cochineal
For the last 12 years, the couple has focused on natural dyeing processes and traditions. Their experience includes researching local indigo and cochineal, collaborating with local and international dyers, experimenting with recipes and testing fastness of the colors on both protein (wool, silk) and cellulose fibers (cotton, linen, hemp).
Both have taught dye workshops in universities, cultural centers and museums in Mexico, the United States and Europe. Currently, the studio provides the service of dyeing fibers for local artisan weavers and teaching workshops.
Washing, mordanting the wool
Wild marigold skein, and cochineal with indigo over-dye
Another Promised Land: Anita Brenner’s Mexico at the Skirball Center, Los Angeles
Once the dust of Mexico settles on your heart,
you will have no rest in any other land.
On September 13, I joined Patrice Wynne and Gloria Orenstein at the Skirball Cultural Center in West Los Angeles for a curator-led preview tour of this landmark exhibition, Another Promised Land: Anita Brenner’s Mexico.
The exhibition runs through February 25, 2018.
The term promised land is rooted in a vision of freedom and liberation. Emotionally, it has meaning for peoples seeking release from oppression who want a secure life where one can become fully realized without restraint. Jewish identity is intertwined with Israel as the promised land. African-American slaves looked to the north as a promised land. Oppressed peoples throughout the world continue to seek asylum in America, their hope of the promised land where opportunity and justice prevail. (We must be vigilant.)
Tina Modotti captures Anita Brenner in black and white
Anita Brenner (1905-1974), a Mexican-born Jewish writer who lived and worked during the Mexican Renaissance, saw the country adopted by her Latvian parents as a promised land for intellectual and artistic expression. Her own experience with prejudice and discrimination helped give her voice to bridge understanding.
Mexico was a haven for immigrants escaping Europe throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. Even today, Mexico has a welcoming immigration policy. Her people are a blend of indigenous, Spanish, African, Filipino, Chinese, German, and French — representing waves of conquest and immigration. Jews sought haven in Mexico when the gates were closed to the United States of America. (Thank you, Mexico!)
Diego Rivera, Dance in Tehuantepec, watercolor
Brenner was an integral part of the circle of Mexican modernists in the 1920s and played an important role in promoting and translating Mexican art, culture, and history for audiences in the U.S.
Jean Charlot, The Massacre in the Main Temple, fresco, Collegio San Ildefonso
Born during the turmoil of the Mexican Revolution (1910-1920), Brenner was close to the leading intellectuals and artists active in Mexico at the time. These are names we know well: painters José Clemente Orozco, Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Jean Charlot, and photographer Tina Modotti. There were others whose name we do not widely know in the USA, including Rivera’s second wife, Guadalupe Marin, Frances Toor, Nahui Olin, Luz Jimenez and Concha Michel.
Abraham Angel, La India
Art historian Karen Cordero says they would meet at Sanborn’s Casa de los Azulejos to talk about politics, social injustices, women’s rights, feminism, and other issues.
The exhibition introduces us to Brenner as an important figure who has been heretofore obscured by the more illustrious in her circle. An influential and prolific writer on Mexican culture, Brenner is best known for her book Idols Behind Altars: Modern Mexican Art and Its Cultural Roots (1929).
Cover of Mexico this month, February 1956
Her work is rooted in the shaping of post-Revolution Mexico, when a new identity for a new nation needed to be reassessed to reflect the persistent indigenous culture behind the Spanish conquest. The Revolution brought with it the need to create political, social and cultural change and artists turned to folk art as inspiration to re-imagine past with future.
Mathias Goeritz, Satellite Tower. He was close to Luis Barragan, architect.
She was also instrumental in creating cultural tourism for Mexico — promoting cultural exploration as a vacation activity by publishing the cultural travel magazine, Mexico this month. We can consider her a pioneer in learning about the people who live where you visit.
The Skirball’s exhibition includes a narrative of Brenner’s life. It features pre-Columbian art, paintings, prints, photographs and drawings by Miguel Covarrubias, Jean Charlot, Edward Weston, Leonora Cunningham, Maximo Pacheco, Lola Cueto, Abraham Angel, plus those we are more familiar with: Kahlo, Rivera, Orozco.
Lithograph by Orozco
Charlot was a disciple of Rivera who contributed to the murals at the Secretariat de Publica Education (SEP). He was in love with Brenner; they could never reconcile religious differences and did not marry, though they remained lifelong friends.
Cultural map of Oaxaca, Mexico/this month
Another Promised Land: Anita Brenner’s Mexico is part of Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA, a far-reaching and ambitious exploration of Latin American and Latino art in dialogue with Los Angeles, taking place from September 2017 through January 2018 at more than sixty cultural institutions across Southern California. Pacific Standard Time is an initiative of the Getty.
Gloria Orenstein, Norma Schafer and Patrice Wynne at the exhibition
Footnote: Los Angeles County has the second largest Jewish population and the largest Latino population in the United States.
Thank you to the Skirball Cultural Center for background information and photographs.
Like this:
2 Comments
Posted in Cultural Commentary, Mexico, Travel & Tourism
Tagged Anita Brenner, art, exhibition, history, immigration, Jewish, Mexico, Pacific Standard Time: LA LA, painting, photography, Skirball Cultural Center