Beyond Art

Oaxacan Wood

A rich tradition of woodcarving in Oaxaca, Mexico: Spotlight on Jacobo Angeles Ã

Alvin Starkman MA, LL.B. Â

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Try your search of the Americas to find the creators of Folk Art with more form, symbolism and importance to the development and support of their culture, the descendants of indigenous people in Oaxaca (WAA € "€ HAWA" ka), one of the states in southern Mexico.

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Many so-called experts in folk art have mistakenly written that the origins of oaxacae € ™ s date of the carving tradition years ago fifty or sixty years, a small number of sculptors who live in one of the central valleys of Oaxaca, a few kilometers from the capital of the same name. The error has always been to match the recent marketing of the art form with its origins and ignoring pre-Hispanic roots and subsequent development.

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à ngeles James lives with His Wife Mary and their two children in San Martín Tilcajete, one of the three main towns of Zapotec origin, where most residents to earn a living from carving and painting of figures in color, often referred to generically as alebrijes.  The others are Arrazola and La Unia ³ n Tejalapan.

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At age 12, James began learning to carve your father. was later sponsored by the village elders.  ⠀ œOver recent decades, our art, no doubt, has changed dramatically, says James â €, â € œwith use of more synthetic paints, a tremendous increase in the range of carved figures, and with national and international demand for our size grows exponentially and affecting how and what produce. But remember, my ancestors were carving animals here in this region before the Spanish arrived in the 1500A € ™ s.à And we were using only natural paint colors derived from fruits and vegetables, plants and tree bark, clay, and even in my family still insects. we use what we find around us to make the paint for our figures, and our timber of choice remains the branches of the copal tree.â €

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San Martín Tilcajete is about 40 minutes drive from the city of Oaxaca, along a road leading to villages stateaid ™ € s Pacific tourism, including one of the oldest ports, Puerto Escondido. Puerto Escondido was a hub for the export of coffee and other cash crops in colonial times, but is now a popular beach destination for Mexican and foreign tourists alike. Many travelers combine their sun and sand holiday with a visit to Oaxaca, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, seeking unique pieces of folk art and dance masks, pottery and clay figures, rugs and carpets, and antiques from the colonial period forward. and, of course, are the pre-Hispanic ruins, galleries, Dominican impressive churches, museums, and renowned Oaxacan cuisine.

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â € œMy ancestors used a 20-day schedule, â € James continues, â € œand each day was represented by a different creature. Zapotec So each person had an animal with whom he had a connection, and each animal had certain characteristics that moved to individual. For example, the jaguar represents power and resistance to breakage, the frog is characterized by honesty and openness, the coyote watchful observation, the turtle always a troublemaker prone to breaking rules, the eagle technical and strategic power, and so on. My people used to carve figures of just these 20 animals. started out as small whittlings for Good Luck that people are kept in a respected place in the house, or worn around the neck as amulets. also carved larger figures for their children used as toys.â €

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After of much research, an almost forgotten story emerges of the use of decoys and other wooden materials. James reveals:  ⠀ œMy people used a variety of methods to attract different types of game, but for hunting birds of prey, rabbits and deer, it is sometimes used decoys. A wooden snake painted on the floor would be placed in an area where ants had trampled the grasses so the snake decoy would easily be considered by eagles. To hunt rabbit, my ancestors a rabbit tail is attached to one end of a straw hat, and at the other end of the tail of another with the face painted on it. for deer, a crude wooden deer torso with real antlers would be at the top So brush. height was historically important for our people, for reasons not only totemic and such, but is directly related to our subsistence. All written records of the time of conquest, not just local legend, confirm the importance of € woodcarving.â

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â € œBut now look at what carve. Although my family that still use natural paints, and even carve our totems, wea € ™ ve become a simple but important and symbolic tradition into something very different. in our villages now carve many more than 20 animals because of collector demand. more importantly, wea € ™ re able to do our heritage better understood and appreciated by the world. In our workshop, our painting depicts designs and representations of our culture â € | friezes from the ancient ruins at Mitla, symbols representing waves, mountains and fertility, the totems, and other metaphors of our culture, past and € present.â

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In fact, the world has notice.  Jacoboâ € ™ s work is prominently displayed at the Smithsonian Institute, Chicagoâ € ™ s National Museum Mexican Art, and elsewhere across the continent and abroad, in museums, art schools and galleries. James regularly across the U.S. promoting folk arts Oaxacan and Zapotec heritage, teaching in a variety of educational spaces ranging from schools to university departments of art, and as honored speaker at art exhibition openings.

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A visit to the workshop à ngeles, accessed by a heavily pot holed narrow dirt road toward the edge of town, offers the opportunity to learn about this extraordinary game of skill, Jacobo, Maria --- an excellent painter in his own right --- and some two dozen other members of his family produce some of the best quality carvings anywhere in the continent.

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The majority of such men, while women do most of the paint, but the tasks are definitely not based exclusively on gender lines. Carving is done with the ⠀ "Mechanical hand tools such as machetes, chisels and knives. The only time a more sophisticated tool is when you use a chain saw used to cut a branch and baseline for a proposed figure.

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Except when a special order is received, the woodworkers in the family are given artistic license to carve what figure wish. A piece of tree trunk œspeakâ € â € one of these specialists, and be the inspiration for the creation of a particular animal: the shape, thickness and curves and turns in the piece come alive. After the bark is removed, a detailed description is drawn, the definition image with greater clarity and Sculpture detail. then begins in earnest.  Â

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â € œFrom copal tree female figures can do one piece of wood, often Very Large and intricate. This wood is soft and easy to work with. The male tree is harder, and branches tend to be smaller and a little delicate, so we use it to make the animals that we got in the process.â €

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The carving alone takes up to a month, sometimes longer. The figure is dried for up to 10 months depending on their size and thickness.  Because of the properties of resin and oaxacae € ™ s semi-tropical climate, wood is susceptible to termites infestation. Consequently, during the drying process the piece is immersed in a gas insecticide mixture for several hours. As an additional safeguard, itâ € ™ s is placed in an oven, just in case eggs have evaded extermination. ⠀ œAll of our parts are guaranteed not to have a termite problem, â € James said.

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Because the figures are trendy, while the wood is green and more easily achievable, the wood is removed during drying. â € œThere are a couple of my family members, whose main task is to fill the cracks before painting begins.â €  For this recovery work using wooden wedges and sawdust But even these mixture. glue wood chips and sawdust have cured. ⠀ œWeâ € ™ re proud of our work, and do not want have no problem with any of our buyers, whether someone is spending $ 20 or $ 2,000. â €

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In almost all cases Workshop A NGELES, a person carving and other paints. Once a figure has left the sculptor's hands, all rights of ownership are released, and another family member is entrusted with the nephew painting. Magdaleno explains:  ⠀ œOccasionally one of my cousins to me and say â € ~ What do you think about of these colors or this kind of design concept for this coyote, â € ™ and AI € ™ ll give my comments, but doesn t ™ € happens very often, and IA ™ € m always happy with the result. For me itâ € ™ s the way thata € ™ s most important and whoeverâ € ™ s painting, itâ € ™ s the image captures.â €

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One can not help but gasp the genius of sculpture that goes in each: to a hungry dog scratching fleas, a bear with a leg in a jar of honey, a constrictor snake wincing jaguar, a horse in winged deer, a woman with long braids, locks and the body of an armadillo, or a deer-size by Mexican standards. Thereâ € ™ s something especially the detention of each creation: the move fluidly and realistically, a fanciful stance, or a familiar pose pressing a chord with our characterization. However popular, the painting is anything but color is familiar. tested and the complexity and variation in design is remarkable.

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Theories abound about the start of the demonstration today of tradition. Some say that due to hallucinogenic mushrooms are native to this part of Mexico, induced by drugs revelations caused the imaginations of some to wander, ultimately becoming expressed in their carvings. The best explanation is that knowledge of © colorful, large, Papier Mache alebrijes or dragon-like forms which originated in the State of Mexico, eventually filtered down to Oaxaca, and were the inspiration for parents of contemporary Painted Wood carvings.  ⠀ œYou know, itâ € ™ s not accurate to refer to what we create as alebrijes, because the older generation of Mexicans, and for collectors of genuine folk art, developed alebrijes near DF (Distrito Federal, or Mexico City, nationalism, s ™ € capital), and what we do is completely different.â €

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Jacobo demonstrates how his ancestors created natural paints, historically used to dye clothing, painting buildings, and ceremonially as face and body decoration used for rites of passage, festivals, prayer and other important occasions. Today, its main use, at least € Jacoboâ ™ s family, is to paint the carvings. He explains with the help of a machete and a tree trunk is cut as the color red inside the bark of copal male, let dry, then roast and grind:  €  "This is a primary basis we use, allowing us to create a range of colors, tones and shades. Only € watch.â

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Using his hands as palettes, Jacobo begins by placing a small amount of powdered bark in one hand, press the lemon juice, creating a brown, which are then placed in an unpainted wooden owl. ⠀ œYes the owl is also one of our sacred beings, the great healer, quiet and humble.â €  He reveals:  ⠀ œNow over time, and the sun, this color will change or disappear and be absorbed by the wood. So what our ancestors learned to do is take the dried sap of the copal tree and warm with honey. The resulting liquid is mixed with paint, change the color a little, see, becomes a deep orange, â € | but more importantly it acts as a mordant take permanent color and a little of shiny.â € Add powdered limestone, and changes color to black. With the addition of baking soda and lemon juice over it becomes a deep yellow, and more chemical magenta. that miraculously becomes a new basis is then started, with crushed pomegranate seeds. magically transforms the powdered green pink with the addition of powdered limestone. Mixed with the magenta color turns blue. With the addition of zinc turns gray, and with more zinc, Blue White. tree aà ± il, indigo, is altered by the addition of bicarbonate, zinc, lemon juice or lime dust mineral. corn mold, a black sticky culinary delicacy known as huitlacoche, when fermented and then powdered, yields ochre. The red of the dried and crushed Insect minute, cochineal, which feeds on its host nopal, turns orange juice with the addition of any of a number of acid fruits.Â

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The demonstration ends with James asks, â € œwhatÂ's your pet, after â € he paints his finger a rabbit's rainbow colors in their hands, as only Alice could have imagined.Â

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With approximately 150 families now producing Painted Wooden figures in these and a couple of other smaller towns, the questions remain unanswered: Â What facilitated and drove more carvers to adopt the style of papier © macha the use of brilliant color combinations, and how everyone in these villages live this solitary art form?

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As with other offices in the Central Valleys of Oaxaca, their production wasn € ™ t always the main livelihood for populace. Traditionally, handicrafts are a hobby or partial trade, beginning with very few items that are sold to passers strange, adventurous or traveler. For nearly carpets No Teotitlan del Valle, had trade routes that producers followed in conducting more sales in other regions of the state, and in some cases beyond. But the primary means of family survival was working the land and livestock on a small scale. A and in the case of the peoples of size, there never was a broader market, although in San Martín Tilcajete embroidered shirts, blouses and dresses were extremely well received all over the ship 1960A € ™ s, and at the 80th € ™ s. Â

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Dramatic change in production and marketing of wood carvings had its genesis in the 1940th € ™ Pan-American s.à through cut the road in the Sierra Madre del Sur mountains, reaching Oaxaca, opening the region to the north, including Mexico City and the border states. Until then Oaxaca was relatively isolated despite a rail connection. For the 1950A € ™ s early 60A € ™ s Americans and Canadians were prospering from the postwar boom, the credit card had been mailed to virtually everyone, and he got word of a new type of vacation in a country the Third World, Mexico; jet air travel facilitated the Women transformation. ™ € s movement meant more two income families, resulting in a more disposable income for traveling. Airlines Mexicana Oaxaca travel agents partnered to begin offering package tours, which will further facilitate tourism to the region.

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The hippie movement of the 1960A € ™ s early 70A € ™ s brought to the forefront of Oaxaca alternative lifestyles, with crowds of youth and their pop idols travel to Huautla jima © nez, then a small village in Oaxaca, eat hallucinogenic mushrooms with the now famous healer Mary Sabina. the North American youth saw and bought the first generation of contemporary wood carvings.Â

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For the 1980th € ™ s, as a result of multiple factors, Oaxacan Wood Carving has become well established as the folk art, with the market growing. The economic implication is that farmers and ranchers were able to spend more time carving and painting, and less time in the field and in the markets for selling their products and animals. Â Â With a new toll road opening From Mexico City to Oaxaca in 1995, access to the southern state became even faster and easier and safer. In conscience, travel writers were no longer able to warn tourists about driving the zigzag, back-banditos road, or cars overheating on secondary roads without stations.

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The future market for art?   While the strange visitor to a Oaxacan coastal resort such as Puerto Escondido, Huatulco and the most popular, will visit the state capital and the workshops of carvers like Jacobo, most do not. Within the next four years a new coastal road was opened, reducing travel time by road at least a third. Even more sun worshipers will visit Oaxaca, and marvel at the art of James and Mary ngeles.Â

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Since opening its family workshop in 1996, no doubt, James and Mary have singularly raised the quality bar for other villagers who aspire to reflect his wooden carvings success. Oaxacan premium, now well established on the world stage, and access is no longer an impediment, the challenge for others in San Martín Tilcajete will be success A NGELES family through the production and quality, so far elude most.

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A challenge for all carvers in the region is to ensure a continuous supply of copal to meet demand. A spear head reforestation project about 15 years ago by the late master of contemporary art Mexican, Rodolfo Morales, continues through his family à Foundation. Los Angeles with friends and other villagers spend the last Sunday of every July, amid the rainy season, seeding, part of its effort to sustainable living: to ensure a continuous supply of raw materials, cutting branches for making figures only so that the tree continues to grow, reducing waste by using wood chips and sawdust in repair work and the remaining branches and the branches as firewood for cooking, and use of the sap and bark in paint production. ⠀ œAnd know, recalls James â €, â € generations œfor wea € ™ ve been using the hardened sap as incense, especially in religious cememonies.  There is even the way in knifemakers Ocotlan n, recording their hand-forged blades with a special ink made with sap. Have you visited the Angel Aguilar Cuchillería Ã? â €

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For collectors High Quality, can only encourage the success of all efforts to sustain growth and development of wood carving tradition in Oaxaca, since it satisfies and progress of our hobby and obsession with quality hand-craftsmanship. fashion for artisans of the region, besides the obvious economic importance, itâ € ™ s Part of maintaining their Zapotec heritage and illustrate the richness of the broader culture world.

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The workshop of James and Mara Angeles is located on the street Olvido # 9, San Martín Tilcajete, Ocotlan n oaxacae (T: Â Â 951-524-9047; A w: Â http://www.tilcajete.org Â, A e: angeles@tilcajete.org Â).

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About the Author

Alvin Starkman received his Masters in Social Anthropology in 1978. After teaching for a few years he attended Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto, thereafter embarking upon a career as a litigator until 2004. Alvin now resides in Oaxaca, where he writes, leads small group tours to the villages, markets, ruins and other sites, is a consultant to film production companies, and operates Casa Machaya Oaxaca Bed & Breakfast. ( http://www.oaxacadream.com ) .

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