mexico – smagik

Chapulines

August 15, 2022August 15, 2022Art, Photography, Travel, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

Wednesday-

I must come up for an idea for a printmaking class I’m taking tomorrow and I just drew the saddest little grasshopper you’ve ever seen. He’s looking up at me from the pages of my notebook like “ really, that’s all you’ve got?” After all of the amazing, inspirational printmaking studios (tallers) you visited today, that’s it?

I am in Oaxaca, Mexico, after somewhat spontaneously deciding to join my mom (a printmaker) on a printmaking tour and workshop (facilitated by @juliannakerwin). It’s been almost 20 years since I was last in Oaxaca and even longer since I carved a piece of linoleum or wood in a printmaking class.

Templo de Santo Domingo de Guzmán, Oaxaca

I spend the first two days, before the tour starts, reacquainting myself with the food, smells, markets, and sites of Oaxaca, of which there are so many! The historic center of town is jammed with galleries, studios, restaurants, shops, and parks, with a fair amount of Americans but not as many as some other places. There are plenty of opportunities to practice Spanish and plenty of menus not yet translated which yield regular surprises- like last night’s dinner of small plantains in mole; I thought the plantains were just a part of the meal, not the whole thing. They were delicious! Chapulines (crickets) are served as snacks everywhere. Dried and covered in salt, chocolate or lime and chile, I avoided them 20 years ago but eat them freely now because, why not? They are the reason behind my attempt to draw a grasshopper for tomorrow’s class.

I don’t remember seeing as much printmaking in Oaxaca in 2003, so I Google it to learn more about its history here. In 2006 there was a massive statewide teacher strike that turned violent and around that time print shops sprang up to create large scale and large quantities of prints in support of the teachers. Oaxaca is a politically active state and being one of the poorest states in Mexico, has ample reason to protest ongoing inequalities and corruption. Many of the printmaking studios have had a direct relationship with these protests while others have gone more of a fine art route but what seems clear is that there is great support for the art form, in all its forms, from the community.

La Máquina Taller- Lithography Press from 1909, moved from Paris to Oaxaca in 2016. One of 26 left in world.

Prints, like these printed at Subterráneos, are pasted to the walls of buildings all over the center of town using wheat paste.

Thursday-

What a day!

I attempt to bring my little surfing cricket to life and I won’t know until tomorrow how he turned out. Our teacher is lovely and sets us up with materials, tools, and directions in his front courtyard.

After working on our own projects we tour more studios; some master printers who print for world famous artists and others who bring their presses into the literal streets, supply materials, and help anyone who walks up make a print. Both versions are awesome.

Friday-

I ink my plate and lay it face up on the press and lay a piece of cotton paper gently over it. Our teacher, Federico Valdez (@federico_valdez_art), guides us through the process until we each end up with three little prints of our own.

After finishing our prints we wind through the hills outside of Oaxaca City, through beautiful Etla, in search of a paper factory that ends up being closed. As keeps happening, someone knows someone who knows someone and we end up in the studio of an amazing paper maker (and human) Roberto Valenzuela of Papel Oaxaca. He was a biologist, dismayed at the environmental impact that paper production had on the planet and decided to begin making paper from agave, banana leaves, and multiple other natural fibers. He is a dear!

Now it is Sunday night. It is raining outside and I fly home tomorrow. I feel so much gratitude for the inspiration this art form, trip, city, workshop, and country have given me. I can’t wait to return to Oaxaca, but in the meantime I am excited to practice some of what I’ve learned back in New Mexico .

Gracias.

Tulum. Que Bueno.

January 15, 2016January 16, 2016Balance, Food, Life, Photography, Travel, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

I started 2016 off with a bang, by heading to Tulum, Mexico, for a week of great food, warm turquoise water, and exploring, with a friend.

Flying into Cancun, we headed south to Playa del Carmen for the night. I hadn’t been to the area in six years and, though I remember it being built up, the mall filled with American spring-breaker stores, which now took up the middle of Avenida 5 Norte, came as a bit of a shock. Time to head farther south, farther from Cancun.

The next morning we took a bus one hour south to Tulum. Tulum- built up in its own Eco Chic way, full of tourists, expensive, gorgeous, but where you can still find great tacos and practice your Spanish…all that I want in a quick, beach getaway.

We rented two places ahead of time, for two nights each, out of fear that showing up without a reservation, during the post- holidays high season, might leave us sleeping under a palm somewhere.

The first, Las Palmas Maya, would have been great for a third of the price. But, Tulum at high season is something I am not used to, so it was what it was. We used the provided earplugs to shut out the generator noise, payed the nearby hotels to use their beaches, and overall had a splendid time. And we met Ben and Lucy, a British couple staying there. The four of us shared a taxi to two different Cenotes where we snorkeled through underground caves. That was followed by lunch at Chamico, an outdoor grill on the beach, serving ceviche, grilled fish and lobster. With cold beer. That lunch was a highlight of the trip.

The second of our two hotels, Mi Amor, went above and beyond our expectations and, from now on, all of my traveling will be capped off by splurging on one or two nights in the kind of hotel you see pictures of in Vogue and Rolling Stone.

Biking to get get fish tacos, walking along the beach to the beautiful stone ruins of Tulum, reading on our daybed, fresh fish daily (The Kitchen Table was excellent!), negotiating with taxi drivers, eating tacos and shopping for embroidered dresses in the town of Tulum, and feeling my skin rehydrate from its normal desert existence, all made for a truly exceptional week away and for a spectacular start to 2016.

And, just when I thought it was perfect… Food poisoning on our last night in Playa deal Carmen, which made for a very long and almost impossible day of traveling back to the States.

Now, as I sit in a cafe, wearing a puffy jacket, it is January outside. Piles of snow lie next to the road and my lip is numb from the two fillings I just got. I am on my way to buy something to unclog my tub and then to start my taxes. But, it’s all good. I’ll think about that turquoise water and, at least for another few weeks, I’ll have a tan.

Día de Los Muertos

November 3, 2014November 3, 2014Life, Photography, UncategorizedLeave a Comment

When I was fifteen, my mom went to Oaxaca, Mexico, for Dia de Los Muertos. And, from that point on, there was always an ofrenda, or altar, set up in the entryway of our house from Halloween through November 2nd. Chocolate, liquor, bread, paper flowers, sugar skulls, photos, fresh marigolds and anything else the departed might enjoy during their brief visit back to earth, was welcome.

Several years ago, my mom and I spent Día de Los Muertos in Mexico City where we helped make an ofrenda and visited many throughout the city and beyond.

The celebration is a tradition I love and have carried into my own home. Not meant to be morbid or sad, I enjoy the ritual of it. I find comfort in the idea of life and death as one big cycle, a continuum with no end and no beginning. And as they say, “tears are cried for the living.”