October 24, 2008, Smile, San Miguel—the photographers are back, By Françoise Lemieux, Bearing witness to the divine and human, Beneﬁcent Collaboration, By Nick Hamblen, Landscape of the changing world, By Shannon Reece, The two worlds of Laurence Michaud, Paintings by a Michoacán master, Freaky Circus, By Juan Ordoñez

Smile, San Miguel—the photographers are back
By Françoise Lemieux
October 24, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Santa Fe Photographic Workshops
Oct 19–Nov 16
La Posada de la Aldea
Ancha de San Antonio 15
www.santafeworkshops.com

Once again, scores of photographers are descending on our decidedly picturesque town, looking for education, inspiration and the great Mexican photo op. With more than 150 yearly educational programs, ranging from the technical (“Mastering Your Flash”) to the inspirational (“Zen and the Art of Photography”), the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops cater to both amateurs and professionals. Since 1990, their distinguished instructors have led courses in locales such as New Mexico, Hawaii, Thailand and, of course, San Miguel.

Santa Fe’s purpose, according to Director Reid Callanan, is to “combine aesthetically beautiful surroundings with an emotionally compelling environment that incorporates healthy doses of creativity, artistry, technique and play.” Participants do more than just take pretty pictures, he explains, they “engage their passion for image making and leave with a greater sense of connectedness to the world and to themselves.”

Classes kicked off last week at their home base, La Posada de la Aldea, and continue until November 16.

This week at Santa Fe

Renowned photographer Joyce Tenneson and Jill Wilson, a certified Chopra and yoga instructor, host “A Gathering of Creative Women in Mexico” at nearby Hacienda las Trancas. The workshop is a holistic retreat for women to explore and expand their creativity.

Described as a combination of portraiture and mythology, Tenneson’s work has been exhibited around the world and is part of museum and private collections. Her images have graced the covers of Time, Life and Newsweek and she has written 13 books, including Wise Women, in which she explores the vitality and beauty of aging in portraits of women between the ages of 65 and 100. This is Tenneson’s 18th year teaching at Santa Fe.

In “Travel Photography in the Digital World,” Ralph Lee Hopkins and company explore the creative aspects of travel photography with San Miguel as a backdrop.

An expedition leader and photographer with National Geographic and Lindblad Expeditions, Hopkins gets around. His penchant for the wilds shows in his arresting landscapes and wildlife photographs. “For me, photography is not just an art,” says Hopkins, “it is a way of being in and connecting with the best of the natural world.” His work appears in most major nature magazines and he also penned two popular hiking guidebooks. Hopkins has been with Santa Fe Workshops since 1999.

Raul Touzon, Eniac Martinez and their students celebrate Day of the Dead in the heartland of Mexico. The group will roam the streets of San Miguel, photographing Dia de Muertos festivities, as well as a cross-cultural Halloween in the Jardín.

Documentary and underwater photographer Touzon has worked extensively throughout Latin America. National Geographic and National Geographic Traveler have published his work. He is a full-time educator, producing workshops for National Geographic Expeditions, as well. This is his eighth year with Santa Fe.

A native of Mexico City, Martinez is a documentary photographer with nearly 90 solo and collective exhibits under his belt. He has also published three books: Mixtecos, Litorales and Camino Real de Tierra Adentro.

His award-winning images can be found in The Daily Telegraph, National Geographic, The New York Times and La Jornada.

Marcela Taboada will be “Exploring the People and Culture of San Miguel de Allende.” Participants in her workshop will get up close and personal with the locals, photographing families preparing for and celebrating the Day of the Dead—in the mercado, in their homes and in the cemetery.

Puebla native Taboada is a self-taught freelance photographer living in Oaxaca. Her work has been shown in museums and galleries in the US, Mexico and Europe.

Apart from leading Santa Fe workshops, Taboada has taught photography at universities and high schools, as well as at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Oaxaca (MACO) and National Geographic’s Photo Camp in Oaxaca. Her evocative black and white images have won many awards and have been featured in Elle, Decor, Hasselblad Forum and The New York Times, as well as in fine-art books.

Online galleries of instructors’ art:

Joyce Tenneson — www.tenneson.com

Ralph Lee Hopkins — www.vervefinearts.com

Raul Touzon — www.touzonphoto.com

Eniac Martinez — www.eniacmartinez.com

Marcela Taboada — www.marcelataboada.com

Françoise Lemieux is a writer and photographer living in San Miguel.

Bearing witness to the divine and human

Art Opening
“Iconos,” paintings by Mary Jane Miller
Sat, Nov 1, 6–9 pm
Galería 6
Jardín, Mineral de Pozos

Galería 6 in Mineral de Pozos is proud to announce an exhibit of the icons of Mary Jane Miller. The artist lives, works and teaches in San Miguel de Allende and the Benedictine Monastery of the Soledad. She has been collaborating with her husband, Valentín Gómez, for 30 years; he creates the repoussé for her icons.

Her work has been fairly traditional, specializing in feast day icons, and of late she seems to be stretching the images in a bit more contemporary direction. The focus is still prayer and meditation, but more with a sense of urgency addressed to a world that yearns to remember who created it and yet “bear witness to the divine and human.”

The workspaces that painters create for themselves are as varied as the artists who inhabit them. While one may choose to work in paint-smeared chaos where coffee cans ﬁlled with brushes soaking in murky water ﬁght for space on surfaces piled high with books and papers, another’s process requires a monastically ordered, austere and open environment in which everything has its place.

Most artists fall somewhere within the inﬁnite possibility that lies between. Their differences notwithstanding, these spaces share the universal commonality of being always extremely personal, unique and in some way revelatory of the work of the artist.

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the studios of Mary Jane Miller and Valentín Gómez, and the privilege of being invited to an artist’s studio is an appointment I always keep.

In front of a pair of exquisitely sculpted gates of his own design, Valentín stands in the street awaiting my arrival. He never misses an opportunity to be of service and graces me with his quiet smile. Stepping through the gates, I am magically transported to a countryside home, hidden somehow in the middle of Colonio San Antonio.

Mary Jane Miller stands among the roses of her ﬂourishing garden, waving me in. As we stroll the grounds, Uno the dog (thus named for a remarkably long list of things he has only one of) plays at our feet, yet all seems still. I am becoming increasingly aware of a serenity: a general sense of well-being subtly washing over me. I think to myself—or maybe I say aloud—“This place is magic.”

“Beneath the surface of the mind, time elongates, providing a wider dimension in which to paint.”

—Mary Jane Miller

In stark contrast to the brilliant blue casa at the other end of the path, the studio is subdued and peaceful. In one corner stands a bed so neat, so economical in detail, I think immediately of a convent.

The room is softly illuminated by diffused light that falls through a large picture window at one end and several smaller windows. That there are only a few of Mary Jane’s meticulously rendered icons on display only adds to the atmosphere of quiet reverence. Under the large window is a wide, wooden table that serves as her easel, preferring as she does to work on her pieces lying ﬂat. Neat and orderly trays, still lifes in and of themselves, are ﬁlled with small, hand-labeled jars of premixed tints and paints along with bits of torn paper and notes.

“I generally feel contact with an unexplained and mysterious presence of something quite a bit greater than myself.”

—Mary Jane Miller

As we move through the studio, discussing the details of their upcoming exhibition in Mineral de Pozos and an ambitious altar project that will take them to Canada for three months, each seems to anticipate the other’s every thought. Harmony. Balance. Purpose. I have traced those intangible and beneﬁcent feelings to their source standing in front of the work of Mary Jane and Valentín.

It is perhaps less than surprising that these two old souls have found their passion in such ancient forms of art: she in egg tempera and 23-karat gold leaf dating back to Egyptian mummy portraiture and he in producing repoussé designs, widely used as early as the eighth century. Was something greater at play than what Mary Jane and Valentín describe as “chance” in their having begun their respective work at the exact same time, unknown to each other and in different countries, eventually meeting nearly 20 years ago?

Before leaving I am shown the studio/workshop where Valentín creates his sculpture as well as all of the metal and repoussé work included in their collaborative art. The lyric and whimsical prickly-pear sculpture climbing the screen door to the shop reﬂects the more playful style of sculpture he often uses when not engaged in his repoussé work. The studio features a treasure trove of found objects and myriad tools, all of which seem to have their place. Here too, as in his work, discipline and restraint reign.

There is a sense of magical tranquility about the couple’s place that makes me wish I could stay longer. Would I return soon? I would indeed.

Landscape of the changing world
By Shannon Reece

Art Opening
“Roots” by Shannon Reece
Sat, Oct 25, 5–7pm
Mero Arte Contemporáneo
Zacateros 24

Landscape, as defined by Webster’s New World Dictionary is “an expanse of natural scenery seen by the eye in one view.” But we now consider all scenery seen in one view as our modern definition of landscape, including manmade structures.

The fast pace at which the rural landscape is changing is due, in part, to our population expansion and the ease of travel. Once a place is “discovered” (as we are used to saying), the rest unfolds quite quickly. Sleepy little towns are now hubs of interconnecting highways and roads.

When I looked at a map of Mexico from the 1970s, when I first traveled to the country, I saw many small towns connected by dotted lines, indicating the rough dirt roads between them. Comparing a map of today, these same towns have become cities and are now connected by a criss-cross pattern of roads and superhighways that resemble the maze of a twisted and tangled root system. It occurred to me that this tangled root system is becoming our world as we traverse the globe in search of a place to live and establish community. I found myself wanting to comment on human beings’ encroachment on nature and so began a series of photographic-based collages called “Bienes Raíces.” The subtext of this series is about how humans increasingly consider nature more for its monetary value than for any other reason.

The new large-format pieces in this exhibition are part of the “Bienes Raíces” series, but in them I address the response nature has had to our tides of colonization and abandonment. We have all seen how quickly a forested hillside can become a suburb of condominiums, but by the same token a jungle will quickly repossess an abandoned village.

For example, in the state of Quintana Roo, the jungle is constantly cut back alongside major roads so they will not be consumed by the vines. In the final pieces of this series, I have used the same technique I employed in the original “Bienes Raíces” series, uniting black-and-white images with detailed pencil work. The drawing became a tremendous learning experience, as trees became rock, which became water, which became branches. I studied the differences between sandstone and concrete, cactus and clouds, trees and water. The drawing element enabled me to create a dialectic flow in the debate between natural and manmade landscapes. The result is a complete body of work
and a new respect for conceptual thought becoming visual. I feel these works live up to the final statement I have been trying to make in this series, and I hope you can come see them.

The two worlds of Laurence Michaud

Art Opening
“Two Worlds/Dos Mundos”
Paintings by Laurence Michaud
Sat, Nov 1, 5–8pm
Galería/Atelier
Fábrica La Aurora

Laurence Michaud is enthusiastically making the trek from her Guadalajara studio to San Miguel to show her new abstract landscape paintings.

“The reception I received two years ago at my first San Miguel show and the appreciation for art that exists in this town has placed San Miguel on my list of favorite places to show,” she remarked. To further feed our local ego, this places San Miguel on a list that includes cities such as Madrid and Paris.

Although she is from Paris, Michaud has a soft spot for Mexico. Her husband and children were born here, and she has lived in Guadalajara for 33 years. She is accustomed to big city shows in Mexico and Europe and the appreciation for art that exists with larger populations, so she was a little skeptical about the welcome her work would receive here. She was pleasantly surprised when her 2006 debut show in San Miguel nearly sold out. Not only did local art lovers welcome her warmly, they also offered educated comments and constructive criticism. “An artist needs those comments. To say something is ‘beautiful’ is one thing, but when another artist comes to you and can back up that sentiment with reasons, that is a true compliment.”

Michaud has almost a cult following in Guadalajara. The Mexican tabloids even follow her around and interview her. Partly this is because of her past.

Michaud was an extremely popular hairdresser to the stars. She trained in the Haute Coiffeur Française and later studied fashion and became a costume designer for experimental theater. This need to be creative eventually led Michaud to painting. She is a true autodidact and has tapped into the kind of creativity that Galería/Atelier likes to give a stage to and encourage. She has a natural sense of aesthetics and the loose expressive brushstrokes to complement it. Her landscapes are rich and textured with a tight color palette. The theme for her newest body of work is “Two Worlds,” a reference to the two countries she calls home but also to her inner and outer worlds, her thoughts versus her actions, her two languages and the intrinsic duplicity of self.

The opening coincides with Fábrica La Aurora’s Dia de los Muertos annual party. For more information or for a virtual catalogue of the show, contact the gallery at info@galeriaatelier.com.

Paintings by a Michoacán master

Art Opening
Paintings by Juan Torres
Sat, Oct 25, 6pm
Noyola Anticuarios
Fábrica La Aurora

During the first two days of November, Mexico is filled with an atmosphere of joy and remembrance. During these days, loved ones who have left this world are recalled with nostalgia and sadness, feelings that are expressed with flowers and decorations placed on the graves of those who are remembered at this time.

Crosses, flowers, candles, chants, prayers and offerings are all gathered for the guest of honor.

All Saints’ Day is celebrated passionately in the state of Michoacán. This year, Noyola Anticuarios is honored to welcome the Michoacán master Juan Torres, whose selection of paintings translate those traditions to the present day. Through his use of light and typical colors of Michoacán, Torres conveys the feeling of being immersed in the celebrations. The famous ceramic catrinas made by his life partner, Belia, are also included in the exhibition.

Torres, an interdisciplinary artist, began his art career at the workshop of the People's School of Fine Arts at the University of Michoacán in San Nicolas de Hidalgo, where he learned painting, sculpture, ceramics, engraving, silverwork, drawing and art history under the supervision of the founder of the Taller de Gráfica Popular, the great Michoacán master Alfredo Zalce. From 1965 to now he has had 43 solo exhibitions, has participated in many group exhibitions in major museums such as MARCO and the History Museum in Monterrey, Nuevo León, and the Colegio de San Ildefonso in Mexico City. His work has sold at auction houses such as Sotheby's in New York. He was recently featured in a New York Times article as one of Michoacán’s best-known artists.

The exhibit continues through November.

Freaky Circus
By Juan Ordoñez

Art Opening
Juan Ordóñez
Fri, Oct 31, 7pm
UMO Galería
Jesús 20
(415) 152-5543

This exhibition and performance about the circus is a hallucinogenic parade born from the lower emotions—tightrope walking, ceramics, paintings and projections. Come disguised; it’s Halloween! The event is in memory of Paco Rayas.