Lecture
The Monarch Butterfly
Tue, Aug 11, 1:30pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Publica
Insurgentes 25
60 pesos

An endangered migration
By Arturo Morales Tirado

To visit the biosphere reserve of the monarch butterfly, it is important to understand the phenomenon and cultivate a critical awareness of the threat imposed by human activities in Canada, Mexico and the US.

This incredible insect weighs less than two grams and its long-distance migrations cover several generations during a year. Sanmiguelenses visit the sites from November to March.

The Michoacán monarchs migrate 4,000 kilometers from the US east of the Rockies. They encounter snow, hail, rain, temperatures below zero, natural predators like sparrows and the destruction of habitat in Canada, the US and Mexico.

This unique natural phenomenon has been threatened in the last year since the relative population of colonies at 12 sites where they hibernate generally was not found at five sites and at the other seven sites, the occupied surface diminished in 75 percent from three years ago.

I have visited the Monarch site at least 20 times each cycle over the last seven years. My Tuesday lecture is profuse in images to illustrate commentary on this amazing phenomenon.



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Audubon Slide Lecture
Mayer Shacter
Tue, Aug 11, 3pm
Teatro Santa Ana
Biblioteca Pública
Insurgentes 25
60 pesos, Audubon members free

Nature in Mexican folk art
By Susan Page

Mexicans are prolific and imaginative artists. Since they often live in rural settings or small villages, it is no surprise that nature is a major theme in their work.

The Audubon Society invited gallery owner Mayer Shacter to present a slide lecture exploring the theme of nature in Mexican art.

Though marginalized by the Western art world as “folk art,” the best of Mexican artists are highly skilled craftspeople, painters and sculptors. While they usually work within a tradition handed down to them through generations in their family or village, their innovations within the style keep the work fresh and exciting. Thousands of families still make their living keeping centuries-old village traditions and the memory of pre-Hispanic Mexico alive.

Shacter’s slides are dazzling and breathtaking. They present an overview of the remarkable range of Mexican popular arts, including painted wood carvings, ceramics, papier-mâché, weaving, yarn and beadwork. He shows the continuing dominance of regional themes and introduces many of the talented artists working today.

As with any art, this work goes beyond its obvious subject matter to express deeper themes that reveal the living spirit of Mexico, themes like duality (sun and moon, life and death, land and sea, human and animal); fertility; idealized everyday life; fantasy; spirituality; their close connection to the earth and nature; and very often hilarious and delightful humor. The contrast between the images of suffering and tragedy that permeate Catholic and colonial art, and the generally happy and colorful themes of “popular” art with its indigenous origins, is quite striking.

Shacter was a much-published and widely known ceramic artist for 27 years before becoming an antique dealer and, since moving to Mexico six years ago, the owner of Galería Atotonilco, five miles north of San Miguel, where he exhibits not only folk art, but also vintage photographs, country antique furniture and the finest private collection of vintage Saltillo serapes in all of Mexico. The Museum of the Serape in Saltillo recently acquired 18 of his serapes. He travels widely in Mexico to find the best artists working today and then acquires their finest work.

“One of the most obvious facts about Mexican folk art to even the casual viewer is the essential role nature plays in the art,” says Shacter. “Birds, trees, cactus, dogs, flowers, grasses—these all form a thread of continuity from centuries of pre-Hispanic art through work being done today by descendants of those highly cultured civilizations.”

This talk is open to the public for 60 pesos and free for Audubon Society members.