Inside the heads and hearts of artists
July 7, 2006

On Tuesday, July 11, Agnes Olive presents her series “The Creative Journey,” which explores what inspires us to create, where our ideas come from and how they manifest themselves in our work.

Invited artists Eschwan Winding and Karen Wight. make visual presentations of their artwork and discuss what inspires them to create and how they evolved and continue to evolve as artists.

An open question-and-answer period follows, giving the audience a rare opportunity to get inside the heads and hearts of the artists. A donation of 50 pesos goes to the girl’s orphanage, Casa Hogar Don Bosco.


Karen Wight

Karen Wight explores the movement and structure of the human form in contemporary works of bronze, glass sculpture, drawings, paintings and sculptural jewelry. Sensual and athletic, spiritual yet sexual…Wight’s pieces reveal the dynamic fluid motion of the human figure in graceful gestures. Her paintings and drawings are also bold expressions of color with sensitive line detail.

“My figurative sculptures invite the viewer to touch them, hold them and know the forms from every possible angle,” Wight comments. She has explored the inner world of the body, with her teaching and practice of dissecting cadavers at Pepperdine University. “Being inside bodies gave me a tangible connection with the internal structure and energy of the body. I sculpt from the inside out.” Surviving cancer has filled Karen and her work with an emotional appreciation for life.

Wight graduated from Chouinard Art School, in Los Angeles, with a BFA in Painting and from UCLA with an MA in Environmental Design. She has a depth of experience as an art and movement instructor at the lab school at UCLA. She has exhibited in museums and numerous galleries internationally and in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

She is now living in San Miguel, working on commissioned sculptures, and is currently represented in San Miguel at Mero Arte Contemporaneo, Goldie’s Diseños, YAM Gallery and in Puerto Vallarta at Galería Omar Alonso.


Eschwan Winding

As a child, Eschwan Winding used to stand in front of the Old Masters paintings in the Chicago Art Institute—captivated and excited, knowing that she would become an artist. She began her art training at the Art Institute and continued with a painting major at the University of Illinois, later studying printmaking and sculpture at UCLA.

Eschwan traveled with her late husband, Kai Winding, one of the giants of jazz, and for 12 years as she sketched, painted and exhibited her jazz musician paintings in France, Spain and New York. For over 50 years her work centered on the power, movement and emotion of the human figure, and only in the last few years has her interest and passion moved to the more organic and nonobjective. 

The change was inspired by meditation, her love of textures and her in-depth knowledge of the power of color, which can alter moods and heal spiritually and physically. Eschwan wrote a book on the subject of color, and for years shared her expertise in popular seminars for the Ethan Allen Corporation.

The last eight years, she has worked almost exclusively in the ancient technique of encaustic. This medium allows her to create layers of color and textures, building translucent veils of color and maintaining the luminosity inherent in the encaustic process. These paintings are designed to be intimate and to be felt—emotionally and figuratively—contemplated and arranged and rearranged to create a personal experience.

Winding offers two-day encaustic workshops in her San Miguel studio that explore the extensive possibilities of encaustic. Mero Arte Contemporaneo, at Zacateros 24, hosts an exhibit of Winding’s newest work from June 17 to July 15.

Lecture, The Creative Journey, Tuesday, July 11, 7:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana, Reloj 50, 50 pesos


How the heck can you tell one ’tec from another?

Aztec, Toltec, Mixtec, Zapotec—we know they were some of the great cultures of ancient Mexico, but how the heck can you tell one ’tec from another? If this question has been on your mind lately, you may be interested in a lecture this week at the Santa Ana Theater.

Retired Professor of Humanities Guillermo Méndez examines four major pre-Hispanic Mexican cultures described by one Mesoamerican scholar as the four “unifying forces” in ancient Mexico: the Olmec, Teotihuacan, Toltec and Aztec civilizations. The lecture is illustrated with over 200 digital images of the art, artifacts, and architecture of the four cultures.

Each of the four cultures had its own style in art and architecture. Distinguishing visual images are presented that characterize each culture. In the case of the Olmecs, the colossal heads carved of basalt are discussed, and the unique were-jaguar images—many carved from jadeite—are examined and interpreted.

A second lecture the following week using the same format presents the Zapotec, Maya, Classic Veracruz and Mixtec cultures. Lecture Ancient Cultures of Mexico, by Guillermo Méndez Wednesday, July 12, 3pm, Teatro Santa Ana, Insurgentes 25, 50 pesos