Missing the sights and sounds of Oaxaca

The trip is over....it's been a few weeks now and I'm still processing....we're talking about a little reunion, and an art sale or a slide show as a fundraiser for en via, still some photos I want to print and some emails to send.  And then we're even looking forward to next year.  In the meantime, i made this photo collage to share with you......

Doodle

                                                 

Jill taught us some carving techniques and we made our own rubber stamps...You can see the one Lark made of a leaf (in orange).....She was trying out a few samples on the paper covering the table which, as you can see, became a perfect foil for Jill's doodle.  Aaaaahhhhh, the power of the doodle.

Making Art at the Casa

                                         

It was really hard to pace ourselves.  We wanted to see everything and make art all day long too!!!  There just weren't enough hours in the day and Jill was constantly teaching us new techniques.  One of my favorite things we learned was how to make collagraphs.  Collagraphs are prints made from layering cardboard on davies board and printing.  Rogene stunned us all with this beautiful piece.

Casa Colonial's Amazing Art

                                    

              The casa where we stayed is just full of wonderful folk art, sculptures, murals, and more from all over Mexico.  I was especially charmed by this painted mural of Guadalupe, Frida, and Soledad (the patron saint of Oaxaca or Mary in her incarnation as the grieving mother) sitting down for a cup of tea together.  Click here to see more photos of the Casa.

Finding Inspiration in Oaxaca

                         

Here's a traditional wax candle like you'll find in many of the Zapotec village churches in Oaxaca.  You can see the birds made out of beeswax.  Sophia had a mold, passed down from her grandmother which she used to make the bird.  She also had molds for pineapples and hands and angels and more. I was inspired by the level of commitment and devotion it takes to work in this kind of tradition. 

All of us at Sophia's

                             

Here's all of us having our picture taken with the Lorenzo family.  They had been so kind as to invite us into their spacious and beautiful home where they demonstrated the old practices of spinning, dyeing, weaving, and candlemaking.  All three of these women are going to recieve interest free loans to support their home businesses with money we gave to go on the tour. Now that seems like a pretty fair trade to me.  I don't want to go into all the details,  but let us just say that by the time we finished with Sophia's discussion of candlemaking and what it means to her, we were all close to tears (including her). You can click here to find out more about Sophia the beautiful candlemaker and click here to find out more about microfinance tours in Oaxaca.                 

Some of the First Work We Did in Mexico

                                                 

We brought a bunch of background pages that we made up in Eugene on our pre trip get together.  This one started with torn pieces of paper from the phone book  glued down all cattywompus.  Then in Mexico,  Jill taught us how to do a contact paper transfer embellished with colored pencils and paint.  Plus we got to practice gold leafing and using walnut ink.  I like how this one turned out.