2023 07 Vida y Sueños (Life and Dreams): A Mixed Media Art Experience with Michael deMeng and Andrea Matus During Oaxaca’s Famous Guelaguetza Festival Dia Tres and Cuatro

 Dia Tres, July 14th (Friday)

Denice and I enjoyed the hotel breakfast with the usual suspects today before heading out for a walk about. We walked the Pan American Highway near the hotel and then returned via the aqueduct. You cannot walk anywhere in Oaxaca without seeing some kind of art. 

Class began today with general introductions and an exchange of information. 

Mija opens up the workshop

Me with our fearless leader, Mija

Colleen Darling

Andrea Matus deMeng

Michael deMeng

Here is a typical huipil blouse pattern from the region of Oaxaca

(Time Warp: Photo taken at the Textile Museum in a few days from now)

Andrea introduced us to the process for making our version of a huipil. 

The class sample

Denice at work

Most of us had prepared our canvas at home so we began by collaging a background on to the canvas. That took all morning and then it was time for lunch.

How the canvas started

The background collage

Lunch today was a group affair and we all walked to El Fogencito, an Argentinian taco restaurant that is one of returnees favorite placing to get food.

In the afternoon, most of spent the time auditioning the collage we are going to put on our huipil.

My audition

Denice's audition

At 5:00 p.m., the group met in the hotel lobby to walk to the the Quinta Real Hotel for our workshop’s welcome dinner. 

The Quinta Real is the beautifully restored 16th century convent of Santa Catalina de Siena. We had a multi-course dinner (mine was Ensalada de Quelites, Consome de los Valles Centrales, Mole Coloradito, and Trio de Nieves sorbet). During dinner we were entertained by a trio (singer, flute, keyboards and guitar).

Then came a wonderful Guelaguetza dance performance which consisted of eight section, each from a different region of the state of Oaxaca. Each ethnicity has its own reasons to dance and the master of ceremonies provided great overviews of those reason in both Spanish and English.

Una on stage

David on stage

After the event Denice and I strolled down the Alcala to the Zocalo so that she could see it first hand.

We got back to the hotel around 10:15 p.m. and decided our day was done.

Dia Cuatro, July 15th (Saturday)

Today after our hotel breakfast we headed straight to the classroom as today’s class started an hour early at 9:00 a.m. We are all madly cutting, pasting and painting now as our collaged huipils are starting to look great.

A woman with hangups

Getting advice from The Teacher (Photo by Denice)

Our classmates at lunch

Today’s lunch was on our own but some of us went to a nearby open air market call La Cosecha Organico where local restaurateurs make regional dishes which were great. 

Tonight we were able to reserve the balcony patio outside El Fongencita (the Argentinian taco restaurant) because we could get dinner, have access to non=public restrooms and have a bird’s eye view of  the opening parade of the Guelaguetza, The Parade of Delegates.

After that, Denice, Anna and I walked the Alcala and checked out some of the artisan’s booths. We met a bookmaker and assemblage artist who had this Marilyn notebook that I bought while the photo is added to my collection of Marilyn around the world. 

Despite the late hour, this vendor was still working on the next piece she will have to sell.