October 31, 2008, Generator artists pay homage to their inspiration, By Cati Demme, Homage to Pierre Bonnard, By Lulu Torbet, Mythology and universal reality, By Susan Plum, Homage to Greek sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros and Polidorus, By David Leonardo, Festival at the factory, By Peter Leventhal, Instituto’s Day of the Dead art exhibit, Art inspired by Day of the Dead, By Abbie Reed, This week at Santa Fe Photo Workshops, By Françoise Lemieux

Generator artists pay homage to their inspiration
By Cati Demme October 31, 2008 San Miguel de Allende

Art Opening
“In Homage”
Sat, Nov 1, 6–9 pm
Generator Gallery
Fábrica La Aurora 14a
Calzada de la Aurora

Artists are always looking for new material. Sometimes it’s not even new, but it has a timeless quality that touches us in some way. This year, Generator Gallery will do something a bit different for Día de los Muertos: Twenty-eight artists will pay visual homage to past artists who have deeply inspired their own work. The show will be up until December 4.

Long before I started painting, I felt an affinity for the French Impressionist painter Pierre Bonnard (1867–1947). As a photographer, it struck me that we were both domesticated homebodies who love the life of cities and the arts.

We both take as our subjects what is near to hand—what we see from our windows and walking around town, what goes on in our own homes and gardens, and with our own friends.

Bonnard photographed his domestic and natural world; sometimes he used his photos as loose reference for his paintings, as I do. That affinity has been both inspiring and instructive, as have Bonnard’s energetic, almost naive marks; his quick, unstudied brushwork; his lush, lively color; and the way he uses broken color and close values to give the work an overall light-enhanced pattern-on-pattern. His disdain for traditional perspective and his use of the everyday to explore the essence of human nature also resonate. What he was able to reveal about the world, aesthetically and psychologically, through the many paintings he did of women bathing is astonishing.

Painting is fairly new to me (these are the first paintings I have shown in San Miguel), and there are years of learning and practice I can never make up for.

Slowly I found my themes, my strengths—and my weaknesses—and became aware of the long road yet to travel. Trying to keep the loose, spontaneous feeling I strive for, I often work with a brush in my left hand and a drawing instrument (charcoal, pastel, pencil) in my right. Working with my hands and fingers directly on the paper or canvas, I try to break out of my own rigid ways. I will probably always look to Bonnard (and Matisse and Vuillard and others) to show me the way.

As the child of American parents raised in Mexico City, I was deeply affected by the rich bicultural experience. Mexico City’s ancient roots inspired me to study archeology and pre-Columbian art at the University of the Americas after spending a year at the University of Arizona in Tucson.

The magical realism and surrealism in the art and literature of the 1950s was fertile ground for a young art student. The rich folk traditions and fine artisans throughout the country added another dimension to my love of storytelling and craft. I spent many hours studying the paintings of Remedios Varo and Leonora Carrington, which were stepping stones into the world of the imagination.

Studying pre-Columbian art and archeology fueled my interest in mythology, especially the early creation myths described by Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell and others. These studies became a source for my work in mixed media, paintings, sculpture and installations. In the eighties I began working with glass, a material that has become integral to much of my work. For me, glass concretizes the invisible, something no other material can do.

I continue to be inspired by the Maya, Aztec, East Indian and Tibetan traditions that visualize spiritual universal realities.

Homage to Greek sculptors Agesander, Athenodoros and Polidorus
By David Leonardo

I believe that one of the greatest masterpieces in art is the sculpture Laocoön and His Sons attributed to the Hellenistic sculptors Agesander, Atenodor and Polidoro. Many themes embodied by this work inspired Michelangelo and other Renaissance artists. In my own work, my intention is to reinterpret Greek mythology.

I wish to show the continued importance of the human figure, and, by incorporating vibrant abstract designs into the images, the way archetypes, according to the psychology of Jung, are always present in our contemporary lives. Every myth teaches us some hidden secret, and in my polyptich of 24 Greco-Roman deities, I wish to evoke a sense of contact with the universal divine.

Festival at the factory
By Peter Leventhal

Day of the Dead Festival
Sat, Nov 1, 6–9pm
Fábrica La Aurora

We celebrate Día de Muertos in the Fábrica La Aurora in a grand way. The celebration continues for the fifth year as we offer music, food, drink and delightful things to see during an open house where you are the honored guest.

Each studio and gallery presents its own unique altars, and two major altars are dedicated to artists whose deaths this year changed our perception of the world.

At the entrance, the accordion music of Salamon greets you with its mix of joyous verve and nostalgic melancholy, while Zonographica offers the photographic opportunity of a lifetime: a photo of you and your beloved alongside two calaveras.

In front of the Café, ¡Viva Mexico!, a stirring cinematic reflection on the intriguing dynamic in which we are privileged to live, will run all evening, accompanied by the finger-snapping music of Hopalong and his band.

Behind the Café, in front of Galería Factoria, two grand altars celebrate the life and death of the great actor Paul Newman, whose philanthropy, measured against his personal wealth, exceeds that of any other person; and Andres Henestrosa, a significant Mexican writer and intellectual from Oaxaca. I came across Henestrosa while doing research for my painting project on events surrounding the Mexican Revolution. He pointed me to Antonieta Rivas Mercado, who has become the central character of the project.

There is magnificence in the Day of the Dead, in this celebration of the lives that have passed into eternity. People are what we remember of them. We need not say anything as we remember, but simply listen.

The dead are always with us. We may not be able to hear them, yet they speak to us. While the past exists for us, we do not exist for it. With our parents’ generation and our grandparents’, and occasionally our great-grandparents’, we have a tenuous connection. Beyond that—nothing. Everything else is antiquity and antiquity has no idea of our existence.

My memories instill in me a very real sense that I, too, am destined for oblivion. As are all lives, my life is finite.

This rule of nature is immutable: my existence will come to an end. I, as well, will have only the flickering illumination of someone’s momentary imaging in some supposed future.

So we come to sit on the grave of those who loved us once, to eat some tortillas and aguacate, and savoring the best for last, we may eat a chunk of thick dark chocolate cake to remind us of our father.

We bring fresh flowers and a few photographs to spread on the ground, and there, smiles frozen in time, arms which never drop the embrace captured in the print, come to us as a fixed point of time, more real than the reality of the moment.

Instituto Allende’s bittersweet Day of the Dead exhibit will include an eclectic assortment of San Miguel painters and photographers showcasing recent works especially dedicated to this time when all of Mexico honors those who have departed.

The artists include Oscar Aguirre, Michael Amici, Janet Dowda, Jim Giampaloli, Chi Kaplan, Lothar Mueller, Margarita Orozco, Juan Perales, Dennis Phol Ana Quiroz, Annemarie Slipper, Pedro Urquiza and Alfredo Velazquez.

Besides the exhibit, the Instituto's James Pinto Gallery will provide the traditional tamales, atole and ponche. The public is invited to view the art and chat with the artists. In addition, each year a deceased person is honored in the Instituto’s chapel; this year, Florence Vanderkemp will be honored.

Art inspired by Day of the Dead
By Abbie Reed

Art Show
Jess Izak Zimmerman
Fri, Oct 31, 5–8pm
& Sat, Nov 1, 11am–4pm
LifePath Gallery
Recreo 80

Over the last five years, Jess Izak Zimmerman has shown his work throughout Mexico. As a resident of San Miguel, he has been inspired by Mexican culture and architecture.

Zimmerman’s paintings are passionate, vibrant and whimsical. In his most recent work, he captures the spirit of The Day of the Dead.

His new work has been well received in New York, San Francisco and Los Angeles. He has donated to many foundations throughout Mexico and the US, including PEACE in Isla Mujeres and Patronato Pro Niños in San Miguel.

This week at Santa Fe Photo Workshops
By Françoise Lemieux

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

Photographic Lecture Series
Mon, Nov 3, 7:30pm
Teatro Angela Peralta
Cnr Mesones & Hernández Macías

The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops continue November 2–9 with offerings both enterprising and inspired. Shutterbugs from far and wide will journey to San Miguel to take part in “Travel Stock Photography,”

a workshop for photographers interested in building a career in this unique field. Instructor Patrick Donehue aims to show students how to prosper in the travel stock market while remaining loyal their own personal vision. To this end, the course is an artful combination of lectures, demonstrations and shooting assignments, as well as portfolio reviews and one-on-one conferences. This intensive class is not for those planning a leisurely visit to San Miguel, however. “We’ll be working throughout the day and into the evening,” says Donehue. “We’ll move mountains together and have a lot of fun along the way.”

As vice president of and chief photographer for Corbis, the world’s second largest stock image company, Donehue knows whereof he speaks. A professional photographer since 1977, he is a well-known industry expert, lecturing frequently on the creative and commercial aspects of the art. His images have been used around the world by clients such as Motorola, General Electric, Chrysler, Nissan and Jim Beam.

Donehue’s accomplishments are not limited to the commercial. A former president of the Picture Archive Council of America (PACA), he is also a member of the President’s Council at the International Center of Photography (ICP). In addition, he is on the faculty at Pasadena’s renowned Art Center College of Design. Donehue has been teaching with the Santa Fe Workshops since 1999. To browse the elaborate world of stock photography, go to www.corbis.com.

Meanwhile, Douglas Beasley will help his students find photographic enlightenment in “Zen and the Art of Photography.” Participants will learn to create more powerful images, using not just the camera but also the heart and mind.

A workshop with a profound inner focus, its purpose is to help members “revitalize their photography while exploring their relationship to their subjects, their cameras and themselves.” The unusual curriculum includes meditation, readings, poetry, conversation and afternoon field trips in and around town. Technical matters are certainly addressed, but Beasley’s emphasis lies elsewhere. His group will learn to heighten their visual awareness, to “cultivate simplicity” and to become more self-aware, enabling them to cultivate a deeper connection with their work.

Beasley’s own work is an investigation of the spiritual side of people and environments. In “Sacred Places,” one of two ongoing bodies of work, he explores the ritualized, the sacrosanct and the spiritual in various cultures. “Earth Meets Spirit” delves into the relationship between nature and the self. Past projects include explorations of shamanism in Peru, sacred sites of the Lakota Indians in South Dakota and indigenous Mayan worship in Guatemala. These collections are available for perusal on his elegant website ( www.douglasbeasley.com ).

Featured in various books and in magazines such as The Sun, B&W, Shots, and PhotoVision, Beasley’s artistic work has also been part of exhibitions around the world. An accomplished commercial photographer, his lengthy client list ranges from Proctor & Gamble to the Sci-Fi Channel. His first book, Japan: A Nisei’s First Encounter, describing his journey to his mother’s homeland, was published in 2000. This is his sixth year with the Workshops.

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