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August 2008 Collector's Corner |
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Since my first visit to
Mexico in 1963, I have been in love with its colors and its music, its
food, mountains and popular arts—and its language. I started college in
Mexico City in 1966, and later did doctoral work in Spanish literature
and linguistics at UT, where I met and married Dick LeVan, who was in
the same program. So things Hispanic have been a shared interest for us
for decades. |
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We spent our first year of marriage in Spain where Dick had a Fulbright. Can you tell we loved the Alhambra? Years later, when our sons left home, we decided to remodel and rethink the way we used our space. Architect Mark Madera took our vague ideas and gave us more than we ever dreamed of. The vision behind the stonework, arches, columns and porch was his. The paint job is mine, with a little help from Dick. | |
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Pascual Reza Navarrete of San Andrés Cohamiata, Jalisco made this piece, “The Hand of Nakawe,” by pressing very fine yarn into beeswax on a wooden disk. Nakawe is the principal feminine deity of the indigenous Huichol people, who live in high, inhospitable areas of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Nakawe is the earth, Grandmother Growth, and in some myth versions, it was she who remade the world after the flood. It seemed like the perfect 20th anniversary gift for ourselves. | |
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A corner of the living room with an eclectic collection from Nicaragua, Mexico, Peru and Colombia. | |
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The painting (top), which represents local customs, came from the artisans’ market in Masaya, Nicaragua. It features the city’s patron saint, Jerome, who is also the patron saint of translators because he translated the Bible into Latin in the Fifth Century. That gave the painting special appeal for me since I’m the owner of On Target Writing Consultants & Spanish Translations. | |
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This 26” batea tray from Guerrero was hand hewn from a single piece of wood, probably in the 40s or 50s. The octagonal Talavera bowl, made about the turn of the 20th Century, is intricately painted with an exotic bird and berries and bears the Cruz Arriaga mark. I purchased this wonderful “sirena” made by maestro Jose García Antonio (of Oaxaca) in Tlaquepaque in 2002 on a trip with the Mexican Folk Art Society of Houston, now Los Amigos del Arte Popular. | |
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I found this “funky monkey” table at a garage sale. Only in Austin... | |
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Living room, with a rocking chair friends brought back from Costa Rica... on the airplane! | |
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Burnished vase, signed Arnulfo Vázquez, was purchased in 2002, in his family’s studio in Tonalá. Huge cat sits safely out of the reach of our two dogs. | |
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View from the entrance. Over the buffet is an oil painting of a mission by Austin artist, Mary DiStefano Jarowitz. She’s also a good friend and she got me started with the faux finish walls. | |
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One of my favorite tiles around the bar says, “El vino mata lentamente. No tengo prisa.” (Wine kills slowly. I’m not in a hurry.) | |
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Cantina El Arco Iris means The Rainbow Cantina. This batea promoting Carta Blanca is one of only two advertising bateas I’ve ever seen. | |
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Carved chair from Michoacán | |
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I bought this tile mural in Guadalajara, in 2002. I don’t know its age, but I love it because it’s so reminiscent of some of the maps which the New World produced in the 1500s for King Philip II of Spain. The church in the center is surrounded by houses, trees and people working. | |
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One of our favorite views: from the kitchen through the cantina, to the living room and entrance. Arches, arches, arches! | |
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Our house was built in 1964 and it tends to be dark, but the colors are bright and cheery. | |
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Frida Kahlo inspired this arrangement of little chocolate cups and a contemporary petatillo plate with two mythical naguals, signed Ramos Lucano. | |
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Begging armadillo alebrije, wood carving, signed Hugo Santiago, Arrazola (Oaxaca). Design is made of a zillion tiny dots. | |
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Petatillo plates here are flanked by bandera plates from Tonalá, so called because with red clay and white and green glaze, they use all three colors of the Mexican flag. Probably from the 50s or 60s. | |
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More bateas and incised trays from Olinalá frame the entrance to the kitchen. I found The Girl with Watermelon, signed Ulysses 98, in a tourist shop in Patzcuaro. | |
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Platter by master Gorky González of Guanajuato and painting by Mary DiStefano Jarowitz. | |
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In 1966 some men from Amayaltepec, Guerrero came and spread their work on the ground at the University of the Americas in Mexico City. I purchased this 5’ long painting (left) on amate bark paper because it had the most beautiful, graceful animals. It was the first truly wonderful piece of folk art I ever purchased, and I’m sorry to say it took some abuse during the 35 years of moving around and child-rearing. The wool Zapotec rug is from 2007. | |
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Once a dark paneled den, this vaulted room is now a lively cantina, where Dick regularly rehearses with a fun band, The Panama Hats. | |
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Bateas with pottery Yalalag cross from Oaxaca (ca. 2000) and a carved coconut butterfly purchased in 2008 in the Dominican Republic. | |
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Bug-eyed pottery sun from Ocumicho, chicken on bicycle wood carving by Vicente Hernández Vázquez, and two figures by Josefina Aguilar. | |
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Two women candle bearers by Josefina Aguilar, from the collection of Holly Hollingsworth, who donated them to an Austin Friends of Folk Art silent auction. Three stacked Oaxacan wood carvings; I love these rustic ones with visible nails and aniline dyes. The “mad dog” alebrije is an old guy with a swollen tongue and teeth that look like they just might be real. | |
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Part of my Mexican plate collection on the living room wall. To learn about these ceramics, I recommend Amanda Thompson’s Mexican Pottery of the 20th Century. | |
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A hand hammered copper sink from Santa Clara del Cobre, Michoacan, and a mermaid and octopus tree of life from Metepec. | |
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Our guest bath is an aquarium, with carved wooden fish snagged from all over the place and Kuna molas purchased in the late 90s when I was a volunteer interpreter with a medical mission in Panama. I scavenged the frames for these intricate reverse appliqués from garage sales and covered them with heavy gauge tinfoil with designs I worked myself. | |
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More bateas along with Olinalá gourd baskets and boxes brighten a shelf in our bedroom. The pottery heart is by Austin artist, Sharon Smith. | |
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Our guest bedroom... and more bateas | |
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With a fireplace and a ceiling fan, this screen porch is our favorite room of the house. Tall drip ware vase from Oaxaca is typical of the 40s–60s, the roly-poly effigy pot is from Mexcala region (60s-70s), the cut oil drum cage is from Haiti, and the other little man pot is from somewhere in Latin America. In a funky antique store outside San Miguel de Allende, friend and band member John Burnett found this sombrero, which looks like it could have ridden with Pancho Villa. | |
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Skylight on screen porch with glass and metal sun. | |
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This burnished clay armadillo by José Luis Cortez, of Tonalá, greets visitors at the front door and reminds them as they leave that “nuestra casa es su casa.” | |
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Collection of suns, some of which were purchased at El Interior. | |
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El Interior |
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