Roses and Revelations: Homage to the Virgin by Mexican textile artists

by Joyce Wycoff 

Update: If you haven't had a chance to see this amazing show, the date has been extended to April 28. Here is a short video which will give you a sense of it. Linda Hanna, organizer of the show, reports that it will travel to Coyoacán in November, 2019. We will give you details of that show when available.

Click here to view video of the show

More about the show:

A unique, textile exhibit honoring the Virgin of Guadalupe and representing the work of textile artists from 52 Mexican communities will open at the State Museum of Oaxacan Folk Art (MEAPO) in San Bartolo Coyotepec, Oaxaca in December. The inauguration will be at 1:00 pm on Sunday, December 9. The show will be up until March 15, 2019. (Date extended to April 28.)

Artist: Pascuala Vásquez Hernández
Zinacantán, Chiapas.

The Virgin of Guadalupe is an omnipresent theme in the work of Mexican artisans and began to fascinate Linda Hanna, conceptualizer of this exhibit, at an early age on her first trip to Mexico.

Artist: Faustina Sumana García
San Juan Chilateca, Oaxaca.

Linda explains, "I first became aware of the Virgin of Guadalupe during a trip to Mexico that my family took in 1959. I watched as the devout approached the Basilica on their bandaged and sometimes bloody knees. This made a big impression on me at the age of thirteen, even though I was not Catholic."

The reverence for Guadalupe, fascinated Linda and she began to study the Virgin’s history starting with the miracle of her revelation on the cloak of Juan Diego, a local indigenous man, to the banner made in 1810 by the priest Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla, featuring the Virgin in an effort to unite the people of Mexico in a struggle for independence, to her ever-present image throughout Mexico. 

Artist: Margarita Avendaño Luis
Pinotepa de Don Luis, Oaxaca.

After living in Oaxaca for a few years, Linda organized the first “Virgin Playday,” a festive gathering on December 12th (the Virgin’s saint day) in which women come together in her folk-art filled home to make their own sculptures of the Virgin. In 2017 there were almost forty participants and it triggered an idea.

Seeing women coming together to make art honoring the Virgin gave Linda the idea for creating a Virgin of Guadalupe exhibit featuring clothing made by individual, textile artists from various regions of Mexico and representing many different techniques. Because Linda knows so many textile artists she was able to pull together work from ten states of Mexico: Oaxaca, Chiapas, Colima, Guerrero, Jalisco, Mexico (State), Michoacán, Puebla, Tlaxcala and Yucatán. The exhibit includes not only clothing, but also accessories, such as bags, shawls and jewelry, items worn close to the heart.

Artist: Hever Martínez Velasco
San Pedro Cajonos, Oaxaca.

Linda describes how the artists have responded to being included in this project:

"In many conversations I had with the artists, I was moved by their sincere enthusiasm and the honor they felt at being given the opportunity to depict the Virgin. One artist even went to his church to have his thread blessed and to pray for guidance in capturing the beauty of his muse. 

Artist: Gildardo Hernández Quero
San Pablo Villa de Mitla, Oaxaca.

For most, this commission meant coming to terms with the limitations of an ancestral process and innovating in order to accomplish the desired result. For these reasons, there is a certain transcendent quality about these pieces that distinguishes this collection.”

In addition to recruiting the artists and planning the details of the show, she plans to make it a traveling exhibition and will talk more about that and the show at the Oaxaca Lending Library at 5pm on January 4 and February 1.

Artist: Enriqueta Cenobio Calixto
San Felipe Santiago, Estado de México.

-- Linda Hanna has been an avid supporter of local folk art since she first moved to Oaxaca in 1997. Prior to that, she spent fifteen years working as a fiber artist and therefore has profound appreciation for the textile traditions and talent found in many Oaxacan communities. For the past 14 years she has acted as coordinator for the Oaxacan artists who participate in the annual craft show Feria Maestros del Arte. She operates a Bed & Breakfast out of her home: www.folkartfantasy.com

Choosing Feria artists is like ...

... putting together an 85-piece jigsaw puzzle … from a stack of 500 bright, shiny pieces each calling, “Pick me! Pick me!” 

On a lovely Saturday morning, the selection committee settled in around my dining room table to pick the 85 artists for Feria 2018. It was a marathon discussion of beauty, workmanship, history, folk art categories, consumer wants, overall fit and an illusive, but important, discussion of social conditions.

The mandate of the Feria is to promote and preserve Mexican Folk Art and Culture by providing traditional artists with market access and by generating awareness of their work. In order to do that, we bring in 85 artists each year from all over Mexico.

Making decisions with so many important criteria is not a simple matter of tallying up points to see who’s in and who isn’t. It took five hours to put the puzzle together, but we think this year’s group of artists is truly unique and exciting. 

We will be introducing you to a few of the new artists in the coming issues of the newsletter. However, you can always explore the roster of artists on the website…2018 Maestros.

One of the artists Linda Hanna will be introducing to the Feria this year is Alicia Leticia García Blanco who makes incredible muñecas(female figures/dolls) and is recognized for her work in Grandes Maestros del Arte Popular OAXACA. It’s a family tradition and her son, Fernando Peguera has won twice in the ceramic category in Friends of Folk Art’s (FOFA) competition for young Oaxaca artists.

The technique used in creating her muñecas is to start with a base. After drying for three to four hours, she turns the piece upside down and begins adding the torso, arms and head.  Finally, embellishments and decorative carvings such as flowers, people, skulls and other designs are laid on to the larger piece.

Alicia's larger figures take approximately 8 days to complete and an additional 15 days to dry with three hours in the oven. Her work is almost exclusively in natural terra cotta colors and she sells her work from her home and a cooperativa (ceramics marketplace) in Santa María Atzompa, Oaxaca. we are delighted to introduce her work at the Feria.

Artist Coordinator: Linda Hanna

by Marianne Carlson

Seventeen years ago when I started the Feria, I had no idea that it might become the premier folk art festival in Mexico. Much of the credit goes to the incredible volunteers attracted by the beauty of Mexican folk art and the opportunity to help preserve the ancient traditions and the artists who have devoted their lives and their artistry to those traditions.

The Feria has been blessed to have three state Artist Coordinators who find amazing artists and help them succeed at the Feria.  The three coordinators who have a wealth of knowledge about Mexican folk art and the artists in their states are: Linda Hanna (Oaxaca), Brigitte Ordoquy (Chiapas) and Terry Baumgart (Michoacán). 

I met Linda Hanna, who later became the artist coordinator for Oaxaca, umpteen years ago when I took a trip to Oaxaca and a mutual friend told me to look her up and to be sure to see her home, and her closet. Strange, I thought, but I did, and found a closet packed with amazing huipiles (traditional blouses or dresses). I knew instantly that we would become great friends. Every year since then she has found new and incredible artists to bring to the Feria.

Linda has been cultivating and nurturing connections to the folk art world of Oaxaca for over a decade. She lives and owns Casa Linda, a folk-art-filled Bed and Breakfast in the village of San Andres Huayapam adjacent to Oaxaca city. Many of the villages throughout Oaxaca specialize in a particular craft and Linda spends much of her time visiting with artisans in their studios. 

In December, she is mounting her own textile show titled “Roses and Revelations: the heritage of the Virgen of Guadalupe through Mexican textile artists.” 

For more about Linda, her show, her tours or her B&B, please click here.