Latest Painting ~ By the Church

Inspired by our upcoming trip to Mexico, I pulled out one of my photographs from our last trip to Mexico in 2007,  to paint for the demo in my advanced watercolor class at the Frank Bette Center for the arts .  The finished painting, "By the Church" and the steps on how I painted it, is discussed in my other blog www.margaretfago.blogspot.com.

The women heading to the market place wore colorful shawls and stripped skirts.  This lady stopped for a few moments in front of the church.

Guatemala's Semana Santa

My friends Enrique and Jennifer were married in Guatemala during Semana Santa.  They told me about the wonderfully designed "Alfombras" (carpets) of colored sawdust, flowers, pine needles etc that are made by each neighborhood that the processions carrying the special alters will go through.  When I Googled: Semana Santa, Guatemala, the first item was "Images".  I am blown away by the varied, intricate, colorful designs that line the street centers for the participants to walk along.  Check it out.  Now this is Art!!

Enrique grew up there and had not realized how special it was until he left and came back.  Jennifer and her Mom couldn't stop talking about how wonderful these group created Alfombras are.

More pictures of Los Voladores

Here's some more photos from George Olney:

Los Voladores on top of the pole

Down safely

The begin to fly on the way down

Hey All,

I was cruising through old stuff today, I have about 5000 Cuetz images.

Margaret's blog comments about Los Voladores, and their ceremonial pole came to mind, so I thought I would pass these along.

I spoke to an old timer Voladores, and tragically, some do fall to their death. He sort of shrugged, and said, I was lucky.

All the best, _G_

Los Voladores, Cuetzalan 2011

George Olney sent me the following two photos that were made into posters for the Wilmette Art Guild In Chicago. He did a photo shoot of Los Voladores in Cuetzalan for them in 2011.  This was another Dick Davis family foundation project to preserve Mexican cultural traditions.

This is a thank you letter to Margarita, for making me a bit more famous than I am, on her blog page!!  Internationally known may take me a few more years though???I need to keep working on my million fotos of mexico!!!

Anyway, I saw in her blog that she mentioned los Voladores, so thought I would pass these posters along. I did a bunch, but these are 2 of my favorites.

That cerimonial pole the young man perches on sways 1 meter in each direction while he performs!!!. Dick jokes I took a chance tying myself off to the steeple to get the shots, BUT nothing compared to the risks this young man takes. My favorite is 195, I think it captures their reverence for mother nature!!
 _G_

With help from friends

Now that the time is getting closer we are getting excited about our trip to Mexico.  I have been practicing my spanish with my friend and neighbor Jackie.  Every evening she takes her dog Shawnie for a walk.  On a few days a week I have been walking with them.  Jackie grew up in Uruguay where she spoke both Spanish and English as a child.  She has been very patient with me as I stumble through my attempts at speaking this new language.  It is best when I listen to my spanish tapes before we go out.  Then words and sentences are still fresh in my mind.  I am understanding better but have a long way to go!!

This photo by George Olney, of The Procession of Silence, shows one of the many local groups participating

Our contact in Mexico, George Olney, of Olney Studios, is a professional photographer and artist.  On his suggestion we googled his name along with BBC, National Geographic, and Cuetzalan We came up with a number of his superb photographs.  He has had his photographs published by BBC and just recently was one of ten finalists in their contest for photos depicting world liberty.  He has been sending us some photos to get a taste of what there will be in San Luis Potosì to photograph.

George Olney took this shot of a local Mercado from a balcony which overlooks the area

George has worked with our sponsor, Dick Davis, on several projects in the past.  They went to the Morisma Festival in Zacatacas, which we had found the film on, a few years ago to take photos.  Another trip was to to photograph the Cuetzalan festival where George got some fascinating pictures of Young Men performing a dance with tall poles.  The final, death Defying part, is where they jump, like a bungie jumper, from the top, flying around the pole, hopeful that the rope on their leg is short enough to keep them from hitting bottom.  Dick Davis has a website where he presents many of the projects he has sponsored.  He is eager to document local festivals and customs from Mexico, feeling that modern ways are already changing these events and customs. The link to his webpage if you would like to see more is:  http://www.dickwdavis.com/

George and our second contact, Nuria, who is the director of the Modern Art Museum in SLP have been helping us find hotels and places to explore.  We will spend our first week in San Luis Potosì and close by locations.  Armadillo is one town George recommended which is close to SLP.  Our second week we will go a bit further afield.  We are making reservations to stay in Real de Catorce for several days.  At one time this was a very active silver mining town.  Just like our mining towns in Nevada, it became a near ghost town but has been revived as an artist colony and vacation destination.  Many of the grand old buildings from the 1600 and 1700 are still there along with the cobblestone streets.  We will return to SLP then go on to see Zacatacas, another city which played a major role during the height of the silver mining in Mexico.  They have a mine which one can tour, and still maintain the grandeur of the early Spanish City.  We look forward to exploring all of these places.

Classic Movies from Mexico

On the suggestion of my friend Xequina, who is quite interested in Mexican Culture, we went to the library and rented a few classic Mexican movies. "Macario" is based on a folktale about greed and making pacts with father death.  "Marcelino - Pan Y Vino - Miracle of Marcelino" was an interesting story about the faith a child has in miracles.  A third movie we found was a 2004 documentary called "Morisma" which was about the traditional festivals by that name, held in Zacatecas and Jalisco.  It gave us insight into the fullness of the festival with its large reenactment of the ancient wars in Spain between the Moors and Catholics, when the Moors were expelled from Spain.