2018 Oaxaca, Mexico, with Michael deMeng, Day Four

Dream Monsters and Alebrijes: deMeng de Los Muertos

October 23rd to November 5th, 2018

What madness is this!!!!

Friday, October 26, 2108

Today is the first day of class. This morning I had breakfast with Marilyn Werst before heading out for a walkabout. Today I crossed the Pan American Highway and headed up the hill into the Xochimilco area.

This is a pretty cool neighborhood with very nice houses decorated with a lot of street art. I can make the assumption this is done with the owner's consent but I have no proof of that.

This is one huge urban tree

Yes, Coco has started to invade Dia. I liked this movie but...

My favorite cemetery in Oaxaca is Xochimilco. Since I have been coming to Oaxaca the cemetery has deteriorated which is a bit sad to see. However, sometimes that means the pictures are better.  At this point in Dia, the graves are not prepared so the cemetery looks like it might on any day of the year.

 

 

I walked back to the hotel in a different direction than my walk up.

I shoot this shot every year in Oaxaca--I love this look

Our first day of Dream Monsters and Alebrijes: deMeng de Los Muertos class began at 10:00 a.m.

Our extraordinary leaders: Colleen Darling and Michael deMeng 

This is my view in the classroom in the Holiday Inn Express Oaxaca

If I was picking sides, I could see myself taking Robyn, KD, Sue and my stable table mate for the workshop, Marilyn

Every year we build an ofrenda in the workshop for Dia. Here is my contribution to remember my Dad.

Michael with one of the class samples

So, now it is time to get to work building my Alebrijes. Here is your brief history of alebrijes: In the 1930s, Pedro Linares had a dream of a strange place filled with strange creatures. He built his remembrances from the dream out of paper mache and painted them in bright colors with patterns. In the 1980s, the wood carving region of Oaxaca adapted this idea and now it is big business. The man we are most familiar with is Jacobo Angeles from San Martín Tilcajete. (To read more about this group's interactions with the Linares family and Jacobo's artist compound, please seek out my blogs from previous trips to Mexico with Colleen and Michael).

My source material for alebrijes #1

Multiple decapitations occur in a Michael deMeng workshop

Class lunch today was at 100% Natural Restaurantes where I had a oyster soup.

In the afternoon, it was time to work on alebrijes #2.

On one of my walkabouts, I found a rare thing in Oaxaca--a junk shop. I purchased a part of a guitar and this frame to incorporate into my alebrijes.

This night we had our official welcome dinner. We walked through Oaxaca to get to the restaurant.

Colleen arranged for us to eat of the rooftop of the Casa Oaxaca Restaurant.  This dinner was pre-selected and it was magnificent. It was truly a room with a view.

We even had a comparsa walk by with band music blaring

Some of us closed the night be listening to a jazz combo in the restaurant bar.

When I get back to my room I tuned in the World Series game that went 18 innings.  Yikes, I was up until 2:30 a.m.