Have a Heart for Hospice
February 13, 2009 San Miguel de Allende

Art Auction Benefit
Viewing & Bidding: Fri–Sat, Feb 13–14, 1–5pm
Closing Reception: Sat, Feb 14, 5–7pm; bidding closes 7pm
William Martin Gallery
Fábrica La Aurora 

“Have a Heart for Hospice” show continues until Saturday, February 14, when the silent auction closes at 7pm. This year Hospice distributed 75 plywood hearts to artists and designers to paint, collage, embellish or decorate. The range of décor is amazing and at least one will fill your heart’s desire.

The fruits of a long journey
By Henry Vermillion

Art Opening
Marion Perlet
Sat, Feb14, 6–8pm 
Galería Izamal
Mesones 80

Painter Marion Perlet’s life and art are examples of triumph over adversity and a most unpromising beginning. She is the product of a childhood spent in poverty in rural Bavaria. She never knew her father.

After the end of the war, she and her mother moved to a tiny two-room apartment in war-devastated Munich, where she found solace and a measure of childhood recognition as the best artist of her classroom.

Her mother was a disciplinarian, very strict, but had a fine voice and a love for music, and she encouraged her daughter in her art. Perlet finally convinced her mother to emigrate to the New World, the land of opportunity. Because of immigration restrictions in the US, they sailed for Canada, and established themselves in Montreal when Marion was 19. Her passage cost $500, and after a long struggle, she repaid this debt to her mother.

Life was not easy in Montreal, but she worked at whatever was available, and there met the young Toller Cranston, a person who became very important in her life and who continues to be important to her. Cranston became an Olympic and world champion ice skater, and later, a fine painter who also lives in San Miguel.

Whatever her day-to-day trials, Perlet continued to study and to paint. In 1988, she first came to San Miguel to live and work. Her first solo show in Mexico was at Bellas Artes in 1989, and in 1996, she joined the cooperative Galería Izamal, where she continues to show. This year, she saw her book Marion Perlet–From the Outside Looking In published. The book is a summary of her career to date, beautifully illustrated and with an appreciation by her friend Toller Cranston and a wonderful nine-page autobiographical sketch.

On St. Valentine’s Day, Galería Izamal presents a selection of new work by Perlet, featuring live music at the reception. Valentine’s Day is an appropriate setting for the paintings; they are poetic, romantic and full of love. As Cranston says in the book’s introduction, Perlet is “at once creatively expressing an extreme sophistication and [a] child-like naiveté.”

Perlet’s work is instantly recognizable. The faces are calm, the noses long and elegant, the lips composed. Her figures are usually still, as if caught in imaginary snapshots. The people are at banquets, on the backs of horses or bulls and often accompanied by dogs, cats, deer, or exotic birds. The animals share their human companions’ calmness and elegance.

Perlet works in series, making wonderful paintings about sumptuous feasts, the circus, or images drawn from Egypt or China. Still others draw from the richness of the Italian Renaissance.

Her settings are dreamlike and often meticulously worked out to the tiniest detail. In her imaginary portraits, she likes to add a fish, a rooster, or perhaps a bouquet of flowers atop the subject’s head.

What advice does Marion offer to younger artists? Perseverance (or”longevity,” as she puts it) is the key, she thinks. What she does not say, but is abundantly clear in her work, is that one must not only persevere, but one must stay faithful to the themes that have meaning to you, and in styles that you love, rather than a style du jour.

As usual, work also can be seen by the other Izamal artists: Maria Bracho, Christian Calvillo, Steven Cary, David Nobbe, Juan Ezcurdia, Gerardo Ruiz, Henry Vermillion and Britt Zaist. Galería Izamal is next to Teatro Ángela Peralta.

Pozos Artwalk Primavera 2009

Pozos Artwalk
Fri–Sun, Feb 20–22, 10am–4:30pm
Buses: Sat & Sun, depart from Liverpool at 10am, return at 4:30pm
150 pesos, roundtrip bus
Mineral de Pozos

It is spring once again. At least in Pozos. The artisans and galleries, in conjunction with Mineral de Pozos Turismo y Cultura, invite all art lovers and day trippers for a weekend of art and fun at “Pozos Artwalk Primavera 2009.” 

Bus transportation from San Miguel is available Saturday and Sunday, February 21–22, with buses departing at 10am in front of Liverpool and returning from Pozos at 4:30pm. Tickets are 150 pesos roundtrip and are available beginning Friday, February 13, at Galería Pérgola/Instituto Allende, DeWayne Youts showroom/Fábrica La Aurora and La Tienda in the Biblioteca. For further information, call ManRey Silva at (442) 205-0811.

Remember, Pozos has no ATMs and most shops do not accept credit cards. Pick up an Artwalk map for complete listing of sites and events. Here are seven highlights.

Posada de las Minas, a beautiful and historic hotel, is showing “Pozos in Abstracto,” a series of photo images taken in and around Pozos by photographer Dave Winslow.

Galería6 on the Jardín presents “Paisaje Guanajuatense,” landscapes paintings of Guanajuato and its environs by renowned San Miguel artist Margarette Dawitt. Several new works will be added to the existing show for the Artwalk event and Dawitt will attend on Saturday. Many new pieces of handmade jewelry in semiprecious stones by artist Susan Lawrence also will be featured.

Dan Rueffert, well-known San Miguel artist and Pozos resident, inaugurates his new gallery at calle Morelos 301 (#23 on the Art Walk map) with a showing of his own paintings.

Los Famosos (#1 on Artwalk map, one block south of the Jardín) presents a show of Bill Lieberman’s photography at his own gallery within the restaurant.

Casa del Cielo Gallery features the beautiful, fabric collage/handmade paper landscapes of artist Beverly Sky as well as the geometric, painted plywood sculptures of Mario Kon.

Casa Venado Azul, Luis Cruz’s shop, offers a fascinating array of handmade drums and other pre-Hispanic musical instruments made by Cruz and his associates.

Historical Plaza Zaragoza (one block west of the Jardín) has other shops offering handmade goods, including Camino de Piedra, Manos Creativos (dolls) and Tecahuatl.

Saturated Watercolor workshops offered
By Nava Grunfeld

Workshops
Saturated Watercolor
Nava Grunfeld
Level I: Mon–Fri, Feb 16–20, 9:30am–1pm
Level II: Mon–Fri, Feb 23–27, 9:30am–1pm
Monteverde Hotel
Centro
Register: art@navagrunfeld.com 

I have been painting as though I came to Mexico long before I ever set foot here. I’m attracted to everything about the Latin American culture—its sensuality, light, people, music, dance, arts, crafts, architecture and the beauty found in everyday objects.

I have a heightened sense of color, and perhaps some of that is due to having grown up in the Middle East, which has a Mediterranean climate and similar light. Now I spend a couple of months each year in Mexico, where I teach, paint, write, photograph and get inspired. I’m often asked whether I exaggerate the colors in my paintings. I don’t. I paint what I see, but everything is heightened in Mexico, including the color, and I carry all this with me when I return home to New England.

In my work I look for more than color; I look for contrast in the colors, shapes, textures and patterns. And perhaps some of that has to do with my graphic design background. In looking at my work, you’ll see that a strong graphic element is the glue holding my paintings together. It may appear as if I’m painting a simple still life, when in fact I’m designing with shapes and colors that just happen to be fruit, flowers and still life objects.

In order to achieve the color saturation and luminosity I’m seeking, I layer transparent veils of color over one another, letting the white of the paper act as the light source, almost like a stained glass window. It’s a time-consuming process, but the only way for me to achieve what I am looking for.

I will teach two Saturated Watercolor workshops here starting February 16. For further information: www.navagrunfeld.com  or art@navagrunfeld.com,  or 154-4467.

Nava Grunfeld’s paintings have appeared as covers of The Artist’s Magazine, The Best of Watercolor and Splash 8: Watercolor Discoveries. Her work has been featured in Watercolor magazine and American Artist articles.

Hard Edge painting
By Ken Stilwell

Art Auction
Collection of Carolyn Hayes
Sun, Feb 15, 4pm
Proceeds to Feed the Hungry
Fine Things auction house in La Obra
Calle de la Rosa 28, Col. Allende

When Carolyn Hayes wrote her master’s thesis in fine arts in 1968, she described her painting as “Hard Edge,” as an extension of abstract expressionism that requires careful planning of the composition before applying the color.

It is a linear design controlling well-defined areas instead of using paint freely. In other words, her art never depends on pure accident. It uses geometric forms placed in such a way that each area of color will be in harmony with the adjacent space. Hard Edge painting is contemporary, using the juxtaposition of circles, waves, squares and triangles. Although perhaps a major concern of Hayes is color, it is color carefully chosen, and confined within the shapes mentioned above. In the long run, however, we do not see cold intellectual composition in her art, but rather an expression of true emotion achieved through the placement of colors in well-planned shapes.

Fine Things, San Miguel’s new auction house, in conjunction with Galería Aspen, presents over 100 pieces of Hayes’ work at auction.

Doors open at 3pm on Sunday for the auction beginning at 4pm. Artwork can be previewed Saturday, February 14, noon–5pm. Any who wish to bid need to pre-register, either during the preview on Saturday, or before the auction begins on Sunday.

Ken Stilwell is curator of Galería Aspen.

Philanthropy is aesthetics of spirit
By José Luis Arias 

Art Opening
Gloria Espino
Benefit for Alison Guadalupe
Fri, Feb 13, 6:30pm
Arias Art Gallery
Correo 73

A year ago, Gloria Espino went through a bone marrow transplant operation at the Hospital Universitario of Nuevo León, all thanks to a group of friends who pulled together to help out and found different ways of raising funds.

Since then, we understand what generosity means and therefore Gloria is organizing an art exhibit celebrating a year of generosity and miracles. She is donating 40 percent of total sales and a piece of artwork to Alison Guadalupe Ramírez, a two-month-old child who currently needs open heart surgery.

The beauty of the heart harmonizes with art and philanthropy is the esthetics of spirit, so that art reflects and attracts the sublime in the human spirit.

Come enjoy and discover the ways in which you can bless and support others through this exhibit which includes artwork from José Luis Arias, José Luis Ramirez and the emerging artist Viridiana Cervantes Cortès. Gallery information: (415) 154-9005 or studio_arias@hotmail.com.