Just got back from (see photos) fabulous Oaxaca, accompanied by fiber artist Carol Shaw-Sutton & mixed-media artist Fran Siegel. It was a tremendous treat to have Carol's take & expertise on all things woven, dyed, embroidered & sewn. Fran's keen sense of spotting the marvelous in the quotidian added greatly to noting the sheer visual
sumptuousness of superabundant color & texture everywhere.
As you can well imagine, flying back after the latest Christmas day fiasco was quite taxing, especially after being subjected to pat downs at all airports. Is it just me, or do the words "Christmas" & "bomber" not seem to quite gel together? Federales were swarming about like busy bees in riot gear throughout the Mexico City terminal. On the plus side, I suppose that the invasive hands-on could count as one of the eight hugs a day we are all supposed to receive to keep our mental health on the straight & narrow.
I managed to get profoundly ill & spent a lot of time...well, ahem, let's just say I was indisposed (thanks to some damn tamales with molé I ate on the zocalo). It dampened my time there considerably - defeated by the body I hurl about once again! Had to miss going to Monte Alban to see the ancient Zapotec sites, which made me very sad indeedy, but at least I made it to the geometric wonder of Mitla. Oaxaca was interesting - the children are all beautiful & trusting, as they've not yet been indoctrinated to be afraid of strangers, the people are in large part friendly, open & warm. Objects that break are lovingly repaired instead of being thrown away & replaced with new (& often inferior) items.
"Saint Migraine" is in reality St. Peter of Verona (for obvious reasons aka St. Peter Martyr) a Dominican ("dog of god") who was expedited to the next world via an axe to the cabeza. Well, I can't say that he didn't entirely deserve it - apparently he was a bit overly zealous when it came to all things Inquisition. He resides in the beautiful blue & white Dominican church in Ocotlan, built in 1572, & restored with major funding from artist Rodolfo Morales in 1999. He seemed a fitting image to follow up New Year's Eve revels, although I doubt an Alka-Selzer could even remotely touch his hang-over.
(Photos courtesy Carol Shaw-Sutton)
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