Paintings 3

 
Abstracts While alebrijes themselves are painted wood carvings, the visual memory of the alebrije tradition is deeply entrenched in the Oaxacan mentality and some of the earliest examples can be found in the Mixtec codices where warriors and priests already exhibit themselves in painted alebrije form on beaten deer-hide whitened with gessum. From these paintings to an abstract art that has the alebrije spirit as its central element is only a tiny step. This one is called Bull / Toro. The next one is the first of a series of studies called Islands. The islands may be those of the St. John River, flowing past Island View, or they may be those of the Oaxaca Valley itself. These islands may also be the treasure islands, glimpsed so casually in our minds, as we sail the Hispaniola through our dreams. Here, circles become eyes become masks become anonymous faces with open mouths. It reminds me of the balloon lady who sits in the central square in Oaxaca until nine o’clock at night. The multiple personalities of her wares are present in the faces of the children who so wistfully stare and so carefully purchase. At night, she gathers her balloons around her and walks home through the streets in a cloud of smiles and happiness. Have I forced the spirit onto the page into an emergent shape which is not its own? Is this perhaps an eye? Or is it a fragmented earth? Or maybe it’s a boiled ego emerging from its ego-egg-cup and battered by a silver spoon which lifts the shell from the ego and reveals the treasure trove within? And is that the way it should be: alebrije abstract, untitled by the artist, but the viewer can provide the title, if she or he wishes! This one was inspired by the wedding present we offered at a Oaxacan wedding. It was gift-wrapped for us and the bows and the ribbons looked like the waterfall that suddenly fell from the skies during a rain-storm. Or was it the rainbow that came and tied a knot in the sky above us to join the clouds together and to prevent more rain from falling? Or was it the tears in the bride’s grandmother’s eyes when she met these strangers from a far-off land and greeted them and their gift with such emotion? I no longer know. But I do know that I will always remember the sudden arrival of line and paint and the feeling of remorse when all was said and done and the knot in the bow was tied and the ceremony of painting and parting was complete. ... and because the cycle would not be complete unless there was another painting to match the earlier groups of six, here is an alebrije abstract called Jorobado / Hunchback. In Oaxaca, the hunchback is an important figure because, in Oaxacan mythology, his hunch is filled with all the cares and woes of his neighbours and it is he (or she) who takes upon herself (or himself) the curing of the world and the caring for it. But is this a hunchback? Or is the face of a man with a hangover glimpsing himself in the morning after mirror? Which or witchcraft: whatever, which is it? The witch’s broom of the paint brush will never tell you what to think, nor how to think it. As the waitress says, when she brings me my breakfast egg in its boiled ego egg-cup: Enjoy!” (to be continued ... )