Hola!

This was our last week of the art class with Corrine. On Tuesday we visited museums and galleries around Oaxaca to work on our Cultural Biography project. Each group managed to track down a handful of paintings by their artist, and by the end of the day everyone could recognize an Olivera painting from a Toledo from across the room. As we went on, we discussed the symbolism behind the art work, and how Oaxacan culture was being represented.

On Wednesday we ventured out of the city again and

visited the communities of Ocotlan and

Coyotepec. In Ocotlan we found the Aguilar sisters- 3 sisters who have set up shops next to each other, making and selling pottery. They specialize in figurines, everything from village women to goats to skeletons. Their work has been featured in the Smithsonian, and it was amazing to see where the art was made. Afterwards, we wandered around Morales' house and walked to see his mural in the town center, discussing what we saw and sketching in our journals. We grabbed a quick snack of quesadillos and hot chocolate in the mercado, and then hopped on a bus to Coyotepec. There we went to visit the home and studio of an 87 year old women who had been making black pottery since the age of 12. Watching

her knead a block of clay and shape it into a vase was mesmerizing. Her main tools were her hands, and she moved with the strength and agility of a much younger woman to finish the basic structure of her piece in under 15 minutes. We talked with her for a little while, drew some more sketches and then headed back into the city with a new appreciation for arte popular.

The next day we met early in the morning to go to the studio of Claudia Vergaz, a local "upcycle" artist in Oaxaca. Claudia collects trash- wrappers, tinfoil, cans- and turns it into art that has gotten her recognized internationally. She transforms everything she finds into shadow boxes, dolls, frames and piggy banks. We were in awe of the amount of creativity she had to use trash in such a different way. Furthermore, Claudia mentioned that she is starting a sort of women's cooperative, where she provides training and small jobs for women living on the streets. It was really inspiring to hear of how she rose up in the art community and is now using her abilities to give back.

Friday was the culminating day of our class, and we gathered together in the morning to present our artist biography projects and art journals to one another. We wrapped up some of our thoughts about the meanings of folk art and culture, and compared artistic skill in our drawings. Later that evening we met as a whole group at Mary Lou's to show the Food and Nutrition track all we had worked on the last couple weeks. They were suitably impressed, just as we had been with the feast they prepared for us on Wednesday during their class. We all agreed that the art class had been wonderful. Learning to make alebrijes and identify works of art was completely new to us, and we enjoyed being able to see so many aspects of Oaxacan culture portrayed through pottery and paintings. Corrine was a great professor, always ready to look at another museum or assure us that our sketches really were great. We will miss her after she heads back to the U.S. but we're looking forward to starting Geology with Barry next week!

Brazos a todos!

Sarah and Caroline