Definitely one of the high points of the 2017 Art Retreat was the visit to the home and studio of Hungarian expat via way of Chile and Canada, surrealist artist Susana Wald who has lived in Oaxaca for the last 20 or so years.
My pal Wren Davidson, who had gone on the 2014 Tour with us has, since then, been going down to Oaxaca a few months of the year to study drawing and painting and had encountered Susana and began drawing lessons with her at her home studio. "Hmmmmm", I thought, "maybe she can make the introductions for us." She could and she did and little did I know how wonderful it would all turn out to be.
After a private visit to the village church, we went to Susana's home. We had refreshments. We sat in her big curved exhibition space. Susana talked about her life and then took questions. Everyone had thoughtful and considered queries and Susana responded in kind. We learned about the three tenents of surrealism: We must have freedom, We must have love, We must have poetry (creativity). Her helper Quinto brought out her work in chronological order one by one. We talked about spirals, eggs, black stones, anarchy, Mexico, Neruda, freedom, and women as furniture. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say we were soon all sitting on the edge of our surreal seats.
We were all of us deeply inspired by this dedicated octogenarian artist who has more than one twinkle in her eye. It was a beautiful encuentro and a real sharing of energy. She fed us & we fed her.(And then later we all ate together).
Susana lives with her husband, Ludwig Zeller, a surrealist poet, in a house they designed themselves on the outskirts of Huayapam.
While we were there, they were having a show of their letters and correspondence at the Stamp Museum and Susana had a painting show at Santa Domingo. I feel lucky to have had this encounter - with a huge thank you to Rogene Manas, Pablo Gonzales, Quinto Euceda, & Susana Wald for making it all happen.
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