Oaxaca Artist Gabo Mendoza Takes Us Back to Childhood
During the week that the Esprit Travel + Tours group was with us in Oaxaca, we made a visit to Gabo (Gabriel) Mendoza whose studio is on Xicotencatl near Hidalgo. Originally from Mexico City, Gabo did volunteer work there for many years with street children. He incorporates their childlike curiosity, resilience, and wonderment in his […]
The Virgin of Guadalupe Photo Essay: From Primitive to Painterly
The Franz Mayer Museum in Mexico City is featuring a special exhibition about the Virgin of Guadalupe. The images include primitive figures in carved wood, elaborate paintings and wood carvings from church altars, woven and embroidered textiles, and contemporary 2016 photographs by Federico Gama taken at the Basilica de Guadalupe in Mexico City. Why am […]
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 […]
Artist Gabo Mendoza Show Opens, Thursday, June 16 at Galeria Arte de Oaxaca
I’ve written about Gabriel “Gabo” Mendoza before. His work might seem whimsical at first look. But it is filled with meaning, emotion, character and ripe for interpretation. Gabo’s subjects are street people, many representing the underbelly of Mexico: poverty, disenfranchisement, sex workers who are mothers, children who are homeless, uneducated and uncared for. Gabo plays […]
At the Dolores Olmedo Museum: Pablo O’Higgins Prints
The entire Frida Kahlo permanent exhibition of paintings at the Dolores Olmedo Patiño Museum in Mexico City is on loan to the Faberge Museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, until April 30. We discovered this last Sunday as we made our afternoon visit as part of the Looking for Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera Art History […]
Pablo O’Higgins and Mexican Muralism: A Weekend in Mexico City
Mexico City is Number One on the New York Times recommended travel destinations. CDMX has it all, they say, and I agree. This is probably the tenth time I’ve been here in the last two years for the art history study tour I organize, Looking for Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera. New Dates: June 30-July 3, […]
Arte Walk Oaxaca: Graphic Arts + Painting Studios
Thursday nights are Arte Walk Oaxaca. There’s a nice little black and white map that pinpoints the independent art spaces and workshops. My favorites (plus one not listed on the map) are clustered in the neighborhood just a few blocks from the Zocalo, bounded by Hidalgo, Doblado, Xicotencatl and Colon. It’s becoming Oaxaca’s SOHO (south […]
Oaxaca Artist Gabriel Mendoza Lives Here
Oaxaca artist Gabriel Mendoza Rodriguez lives obscurely and paints large. His works are filled with color, humor, sadness, political and social commentary. They are playful and grotesque, childlike and sophisticated, simple and complex. Look into Gabo’s eyes and you know that he feels what he paints — street children, prostitutes, farm animals. These are interpretations […]
Evoking Frida Kahlo: Making Memory Altars and Shrines
Mexico is filled with altars that usually include sacred images and a Virgin of Guadalupe retablo. During Day of the Dead a family altar displays photographs of departed loved ones. We are taking this mixed media art workshop, based in Teotitlan del Valle, Oaxaca, Mexico, beyond the norm to create a three-dimensional altar suitable for display. Frida […]
Artist Salvador Dali at Port Lligat, Girona, Spain
Port Lligat on Spain’s Costa Brava, is a niche in the rock wall coast line of the Mediterranean Sea, just around the bend from Cadaques. This tiny fishing village is where surrealist artist Salvador Dali lived and painted for most of his adult life. We ended up here more or less by accident, since we had […]
Mexican Muralist Orozco’s Prometheus at Pomona College, California
Last week while I was visiting my son in Southern California, I decided to make a pilgrimage to see Jose Clemente Orozco’s famed mural at Pomona College. Orozco, along with Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siquieros, is one of the Three Grand Masters of Mexican Muralism. Like a three-legged stool, the study of one balances […]
Dinner with Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera at Casa Azul
Guadalupe Rivera Marin remembers the elaborate meals served at Casa Azul, home of her father Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Lupe lived with them for a few years and claims to have taught Frida how to cook. Evidently, Frida loved to entertain but didn’t take much to the preparation. I wouldn’t either if it required […]
P.S. Looking for Diego Rivera in San Francisco, California, USA
Just in from my sister Barbara who lives in the Bay Area. USA Today publishes How to Visit Diego Rivera Murals in San Francisco. Here is the complete list, open hours, and specific locations. Enjoy!
Art of the Rebozo: Painting on Silk Oaxaca Style with Costume Designer Hilary Simon
Oaxaca is the ideal location for this 8-night, 9-day silk painting workshop led by London, U.K. costume designer, artist and curator Hilary Simon from March 22-30, 2013. Hilary will curate a London and Mexico exhibition on the rebozo in 2014, and we are fortunate to bring her to Oaxaca to give you this incredible experience […]
Artist’s Studio: Mauricio Cervantes, Oaxaca, Mexico
There is a robust contemporary art scene in Oaxaca that is rooted in the Mexican art traditions of Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros with influences by Francisco Toledo, Oaxaca’s living art treasure. Mauricio Cervantes is one of the new generation who taps deeply into his cultural history. Hidden behind a peacock-blue facade on Avenida Benito […]
Photography + Art Collage Workshop in Oaxaca, Mexico
Questions? EMAIL normahawthorne@mac.com Please Distribute! Yesterday, Mari and I worked together in Humberto’s studio to create this poster. The main image is a fine example of how you can make a photograph and then transfer the image to create an art collage. The small portrait at the top features a Carnival reveller. The workshop allows […]
Musings
Stephen and I are breathing a little easier now that the Chavez Family North Carolina artist residency is behind us. For two weeks, we juggled cars, trucks and schedules so that Eric and Janet could be in Asheville, Pittsboro, Chapel Hill and Siler City for weaving and dyeing demonstrations, exhibitions, lectures, and gallery openings. The residency […]