The Weaver at Work

Add captionThe Weaver 

In Teotitlan de Valle - creating with thread and light

My Journaling Tour in March

Usually in Oaxaca, I'm so inspired and my journal drawings are on fire. I'm not sure exactly why that is but it has something to do with that amorphous thing they call energy. There is a kind of creative fire in the atmosphere.  

I am excited to be offering a tour next spring in which the focus will be on travel journaling - whether that means sketching, writing poetry or doing collage work or some combination. We'll explore journaling as a means of connecting with place and creating memory. I'll teach some basic bookmaking techniques, and we might try cyanotypes and marbling paper, but mostly our time will be focused on our own journals as we travel to noteworthy places throughout Oaxaca to sketch and write. Each participant will have a day to lead the group in journal prompts and we'll do critiques and sharing most days.  This is the tour I've always wanted to take and so I'm making it happen. For more info contact me directly at jewel.murphy@gmail.com

My Little Pony and Other Papier Mache Adventures

I love my old papier mache pony that sits on my mantle - I think it's from Puebla - the base and wheels are wood and they're probably using some kind of mold because there is one just like it in front of the fireplace at the Casa.  And I think I saw a picture of one in an Eliot Porter book from his travels in the 50's through Mexico.  But I've looked and can't find it.  Maybe I dreamed it up.

Papier mache has a long tradition in Mexico and you can find it used for, among other things, children's toys, dolls, masks, Santos and Day of the Dead figures and the ubiquitous pinata. Jean Foss's husband Chucho is a talented artist working with papier mache and we're hoping, for a future art tour, to ask him to come down to the Casa and teach us some tricks of the trade or maybe we'll make a piñata.

Stay tuned for our March Art Tour.