2026 02 Oaxaca Mexico For the Michael deMeng Workshop Fandango Fantastico Day Four

 Wednesday, February 11, 2026

Today we are down in the hotel lobby for breakfast at 8:00 a.m. because the group is leaving at 9:30 a.m. to begin the first official trip activity.

This is Neti Lopez, an alebrijes maker from San Martin who sells in the lobby of our hotel.

Denice bought this piece for our house. Later we will visit Neti's home studio.

Mija and Michael

The purpose of today’s walkabout with Mija, Jon and Michael is to orient the participants who are new to Oaxaca. The group started out by walking down the Alcala.

Photo by Denice

My version of this model

Our first stop was the Santo Domingo Church. 

We visited the Culture Museum of Oaxaca next door to the Santo Domingo. We had one hour which is not nearly enough time to absorb all the culture that is housed here.

The Library

The major exhibit on the ground floor was El Tallador de Suenos: Manuel Jimenez. Jimenez is the sculptor and painter who after working in clay switched to copal wood to establish the current carvings known today as alebrijes.

From inside the museum there are spectacular views including one overlooking the botanical gardens.

Liang Metanduno--Oaxacan version

Our next stop was at the Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños. 

Leonara Carrington

The artist Fulgencio Lazo’s work was the most impressive. 

Sometimes a gallery window with a broken shade is a work of art too

At 1:30 the art group had lunch together at Tres Bistro on the Zocalo. 

The group’s next stop for the group was the Soledad Church but the we and the Bugenhagens had done that yesterday. So we took off. 

We stopped at Templo del Carmen de Abajo. 

Then it was over to the Museo de Arte Prehispanic de Mexico Rufino Tamayo museum. 

My personal choice for the next stop was The Centro Fotográfico Manuel Álvarez Bravo. This little museum always in the past had some interesting photography to view. This time the exhibition filled the entire museum and it was not to my liking. Oh well, that is the danger of museum walking.

Because it was another hot day we stopped off for Bebidas at a little café before heading to the NUUN Espacio de Arte - Galería de Arte Contemporáneo Oaxaca. This was a very small gallery and proved to not be very much to view. The good news was that it was a very short walk back to the alcala and a few other places to stop. 

We went to the MVSEO museum to tour the collection. 

Next we went to La Mono Magica store to view. Then we went to the Huizache store where Marilyn bought a bright red hat.

At that point Denice and the Bugenhagens were done for the day so I dashed to Grupo Miguel’s Craft Store in search of a piece of wood for my project, two small round mirrors for eyes and some tacks so Denice could repair her shoes. All I got was the wood.

Tonight we decided that we had eaten so much for lunch with the group that we would walk over to Del Jardin for a light supper. I had the Del Jardin consommé which is really good chicken soup.

We were back in our room by 8:00 p.m. thinking about class starting tomorrow.