During a recent trip to Mexico I came across a beautiful small museum in the mountain town of San Cristobal de las Casas which is located in Chiapas in the south. Next to the San Domingo church, the Centro de Textiles del Mundo Maya is housed in a restored convent and is a treasure trove of textiles and weaving particular to the indigenous tribes of the extended mayan peninsula. In addition to displays there were endless pull out drawers with textile weaving and embroidery samples from different cultural groups as well as different time periods. There is such a vibrancy and exuberance yet also a sophistication both visually and technically to these beautiful Mayan textiles that I had to share!
A strange folk art appeared in the 1950's in America. These figurines were either male or female and made of wood with bottle caps for arms and legs and matching ashtrays or bowls attached atop their head and the other in front; loop earrings, period tacks for nose, eyes and buttons. Produced in quantity and, with a few exceptions, anonymously, the most common figures are about a foot high, their wood-block bodies decorated with a grid of incised lines, and sometimes glitter.
As kitsch objects, they belong to the folk art universe that nods to both a world of mass production and consumption and the folk-art universe of hand- built, one-of-a-kind works by untrained, usually unknown, creators. They have increasingly become collector items as we hurtle in time further and further away from the simplicity of folk art creativity of the 1950s. Here's your chance to start up a collection or add to it.
My fellow, (who is as old as me!) caught my eye across a crowded room. I love his intensity of purpose. As always things that make me smile are always catching my eye. He waits for you in my shop. Pass the nuts, Delores....
