~~TASTOAN MASK~~2013~~MASCARA TASTOAN~~

Just got back from our Summer buying trip with a special prize...the newest addition to our selection of "Played" Tastoan masks. It's from the festival this past July. I've attached a link to our more extensive article on the Tastoanes in the PV Mirror of July this year.


http://pvmirror.wordpress.com/endless-discovering/july-2013-●-the-dance-masks-of-the-tastoanes/


We also have 2 previous "Tastoan" posts on this blog that you may not have seen....¡Pásele...take a loook!

~MASCARA TASTOAN~2012~TASTOAN MASK~

Here is our latest bad boy, collected in Sept. of this year. It was "played" in the 2012 Dance of the Tastoan.

The "Dance/Battle/Fiesta" is celbrated each July 25th, the Feast Day of Santiago in the streets of Tonala, Jalisco.

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Aqui esta nuestro tipo malo mas nuevo, coleccionado en Sept. de este año.
Lo fue "jugado" en La Danza de Los Tastoanes de 2012.

La "Danza/Batalla/Fiesta esta celebrado cada 25 de Julio, el Dia de Santiago en las calles de Tonala, Jalisco.

~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.

              ~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.

~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~