~OTRO ESPIRITU~ANOTHER SPIRIT~

Featured next in the house spirit series. This Quetzalcoatl has carnelian eyes and plenty of fire to protect you. Small but mighty... and travels well! Made of Calafia's treasures gleaned from the Sea of Cortez.

Scroll down to learn more about this series.

~LIVE...ON STAGE...MARIACHI RANA!!!~

~At Galeria Colibri, where the sublime meets the ridiculous~


A little 'alebrige' from Oaxaca gets his big break on this special stage from Guanajuato!

~LA MANO de MUJER~~THE WOMAN'S HAND~

               
                                                                   
       
What a woman puts her hand to...things made by or used by women is the theme. The little street vendor is camped outside the public market next to the market shrine, selling her wares, sheltered under it's portico.

I call these story boxes. This is my 3rd one. The first 2 are sold. These first 3 are housed in handmade mason's boxes. The masons and tilesetters of Mexico use these to work small batches of plaster or tile mortar. I put feet on them and used a picture framing wire system on the back so they can be displayed either sitting or hanging. You can see the worn wood of the front edge, from the repeated washing of the tool at day's end. After the boxes are too worn to use, they'll just make a new one. In Mexico, most buildings are of masonry, so there is alot of form-wood handy. I love the saw-horses (burros) and other useful things they just whip up! In my role of tile designer for our custom homes in Puerto Peñasco, I had easy access to these boxes and since my husband enjoys his Cerveza Victoria, I have access to lots of yellow bottle-caps as well!  ¡¡¡Ahhh...Victoria!!!


     
CLICK on the image to get a closer look. (This pic will enlarge because of the horizontal format)

                     

              ~HOUSE SPIRIT~ESPIRITU de la CASA~

This is an example of what I made last Summer, while we were back in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora.

I absolutely LOVE my beach there! It's so peaceful & an amazing source of materials for a confirmed collage artist.

My inspiration came from an old Tastoan mask that we found & sold last year. It was 10 years old. It was made using a dog's pelvis as the main part of the face. The openings where the leg bones had been attached served as the eye sockets. It had a dried lizard over the 'nose' which held a tiny bird's skull in it's open mouth. The paint was almost completely worn off and it was topped off with a wig of multicolored horse tails. Quite ugly...but, well that's the point of a Tastoan mask.
Anyway, my husband just had to have it for the shop...I hated it! After we hung it in the shop, I shuddered when people would look at it. I wished it would go away...quickly! One day, someone wanted a closer look at it. I decided to model it. Gazing upon my transformation in the mirror was an amazing experience! All at once I felt the magic that it held! That's when I knew what I just had to do with all those fascinating bones and bits of treasure that I'd been collecting from the seashore for all those years!

Even though my collection is quite large, many times I must make a special search for just that right 'something' to complete the vision. This piece was one of those. I had to put it on the back burner because I was stuck at a certain point. As luck would have it, the very next morning on my beach walk, Calafia tossed it right at my feet...something rare at our end of the Sea of Cortez. You can see it there in the crown, just above the pearly oyster, a piece of very large scallop shell weathered to a bluish/pinkish cast. on it flowed from there. The face is made of a pelican's pelvis with eyes of  glass marbles washed up from somewhere. There are lots of 'twirly-middles'...snail shells worn down to resemble flowers and vines, or...? The dragon's breath is made of 'worm shell'. She sports a fish vertebra, pink barnacles and even a pearl.

~CATRINAS & BUTTERFLIES~CATRINAS y MARIPOSAS~

~THINGS WE LOVE~COSAS QUE  ENCANTAMOS~

The imagery surrounding Dia de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is quite fascinating. IT TEEMS WITH LIFE! Butterflies, birds, flowers, dance, food and drink...the list goes on...all our favorite things in life are remembered tenderly, enjoyed fervently.
Actually two days...Nov.1 & 2. The 1st is for 'los angelitos' the children, the 2nd is for the adults, when the fiesta really cranks up!
Remembering those who have gone on before us...with humor, with love. Sharing their visions and re-affirming what they've taught us. We re-evaluate our own lives through them, on these two  days every year. Every year on these two days they come back to visit us. How beautiful that is...no...it's not about Death, it's about Resurrection!

~TASTOAN MASK~MASCARA TASTOAN~

The festival of the Tastoanes commemorates the Battle of Tonala, an Indian revolt that ocurred after the Spanish conquered & occupied the old kingdom Tonaltecas. The present day suburb of Guadalajara named Tonala. The Indian queen, Cihualpilli had received the Spanish with open arms & willingly converted to Catholicism, but a group of Indians less enamored with the European invaders & their religion had other ideas. They banded together with members of other conquered tribes & rebelled. A fierce & bloody battle ensued, with many casualties on both sides. Eventually, the Spanish horsemen were victorious. As the legend goes, when the native rebellion was put down, the survivors were turned into grotesque monsters~~Tastoanes. Much of the allegory of the festival echoes the religious significance of this legend... One of the principal Tastoan characters is Barrabas & St. James (Santiago) is the patron saint of the event, as he is considered to the patron saint of the Spanish Conquest. Santiago is mounted on a white horse fighting against the masked Tastoanes. The martyred Saint dies, is resurrected, wins the battle & converts the defeated Tastoanes to Christianity!
This mask was worn by a dancer during the ritual fight July 25th 2010. It is said to have been "jugada" or "played". Until very recently, most of the dancers, who make the masks themselves, would soak them in water & strip them back down to the plain leather base after the festival, thus allowing the spirit of the Tastoan to be released. This accounts for the rarity of this particular mask. The base is of leather, the figures in relief are ceramic, the wig is horsetail, the teeth from several coyotes~

                                                     

~OUR LADY OF GUADALUPE~Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe~

                   ~TONANTZIN~
                   The Earth Mother

              HER CHURCH IN PV

            CELEBRATED IT'S 90th

           BIRTHDAY 12 OCT. 2011



This is one of the very most beautiful
Lupita Murals I've ever seen.
We're so fortunate to have found it this summer in San Miguel de Allende.
We have a couple of smaller ones available also, by a different artist.

Ceramic tile is one of my specialties. I love murals of all kinds....cut, broken or painted!!!
We always have some in stock.
I do order them, from 3 trusted sources, but usually prefer to rely on my "personal search karma".

NEW TREASURE!~~¡TESORO NUEVO!

~~WHAT A WONDERFUL BLESSING WE RECIEVED YESTERDAY!~~ This is one of two Huichol ceremonial drinking gourds or 'Bules'~~This one depicting the Shaman (Mara'akame) on his reed seat, conducting the ceremony honoring the corn. There are many symbols depicted all around the gourd, even on the bottom...the deer, the corn, (shown). Some other symbols on it are the Mara'akame's drum & staff with Eagle feathers. It rests on a ceramic, yarn-wrapped ring made by Mata Ortiz potters for their 'ollas'.

WE KISS JOVA GOODBYE!~~¡DECIMOS ADIOS A JOVA!

Taken from our apartment balcony Wed. evening, 12 Oct, 2011
No color enhancement needed!
Jova was kind to us, here in Vallarta. No wind, just gentle soaking rains. Our southern neighbors were not so lucky. It definitely could have been worse, but there were several deaths and waist deep water in Manzanillo and surrounding beach towns. It reminds me to value the time I'm given.

¡VIVA CATRINAS!~~HURRAH CATRINAS!

               ¡Zapata y Novia son vendidos!         ¡Danzante vendida!

ORIGINAL TILE SIGN~~STILL IN SONORA

My original design. Handcut. Mounted on Hardi-backer. Very heavy. I sure miss it! 
This beloved symbol of our gallery, our 10 years of travelling Mexico, gathering her treasures to grace the lives of our many friends at her northern border in Puerto Peñasco, Sonora. Times and tides change, and so we find ourselves transported to a new location. Puerto Vallarta, Jalisco is our new home!