THE ARTISTS: MEXICO

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Angel Cruz Solis

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Angelica Morales

Angelica Morales creates decorated pots with
folkloric scenes and images of Purepecha women
from her native Tzintzuntzan, Michoacan, Mexico.
Sirenas (mermaids), rituals and festivals are favorite
subjects for Morales, who learned her art as a child
and has developed a distinctive painterly style.
She uses the blanco y negro style that requires
treating fired pots with engobes, special thin-clay
solutions that prepare the pot for an additional step. It
can take up to four days to apply engobes to one pot.
She is working with her husband, Roberto, to build
her own lead-free kiln.

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Arturo Sosa

Arturo Sosa Perez was born in Oaxaca City, Mexico,
and began to create tinwork in his father's workshop
at the age of 13. Sosa Perez has been a pioneer in the
elaboration of both flat and three-dimensional figures
over a 40-year career, and his designs are now widely
known and imitated. He uses only the highest quality
tin and creates forms and repousees.
In his painted work, he uses auto lacquers diluted
with acrylic thinner, a technique he developed unique to his work.

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BenjaminSantiago

Far far away from the other villages is a window into
the past. Artists in La Union draw their talents from an
ancient form of toy making. Some prefer using vegetable
and aniline dyes not used by other villages since the 60's
for a deep feel that fades gracefully over time. Most share
a sort of rustic finesse that gives presence and personality.
These qualities are best seen in the work of the
Santos, Perez and Santiago families.

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Corona Family

In the town of “San Pablo del Monte”, in the state of Tlaxcala, the art of working the talavera was not known. It was on 1981 that a small shop was born in charge of the great ceramist “Don Cayetano Corona Gaspariano” that had the knowledge and necessary dedication to work pieces of Talavera so beautiful and authentic as those that knew each other in the old and traditional shops of this ceramic.


When he decided to put this shop in “San Pablo del Monte” it was with the help of their children. At the beginning it was a small familiar shop of Talavera, but with their perseverance and great spirit it becoming into “Fábrica de Talavera La Corona S.A. de C.V.” which has a great recognition for the quality and designs.

Don Cayetano Corona Gaspariano, within his children have tried to have the same technique of Talavera, because they want to conserve effective the handmade tradition.

For the elaboration of this craft they are used two moods the black one and the loamy one, and the rosy one, which are bought in the city of Puebla in big quantities.

The colours of their pieces are a hundred percent of mineral origin, the same one manufactures them with the recipes of the painting of the authentic talavera, In fact their handmade of sewn mud, or of plaster, and paintbrushes of different width, preferably Japanese paintbrushes that are special to decorate and also uses wooden lathes of two circles that it manages with the feet, gas ovens and regulator of temperature

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Cruz Sosa

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Demetrio Aguilar

Born and raised in Mexico in the village of Ocotlan, Oaxaca, Demetrio Garcia Aguilar grew up in a family of clay artists. Drawing on the traditions of his grandmother and his mother, the famous ceramic artist, Josefina Aguilar, he learned to gather and prepare the raw materials and to model the engaging folkart figures for which the family has earned worldwide acclaim.

Combinding his mother's folk art tradition with his own unique style, Demetrio creates fantastic handcrafted munecas (human figures) and plaques with personal interpretations of religious, cultural and family themes. Examples of themes he is known for are, the Adam and Eve expelled from the Garden of Eden, the good and bad in all of us, Day of the Dead scenes, and various Frida Kahlo interpretations.

The second son of renowned clay artisan Josefina Aguilar, clay was one of his toys as an infant. By age 7, figures he created in his mother's style were already selling to collectors.

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Efrain Fuentes

Efrain began carving at seven years old. He specializes in cats,
armadillos and anteaters. He works on his pieces from
start to finish. He initially finds ideas for his creations by
looking at the shape of the wood. He starts to work with a
machete and then works on details with a chisel. His wife Sylvia
paints with him on the finished carvings. Efrain has had the
advantage of learning his craft from a very talented family.
There are 3 generations of Fuentes family members working
in wood carving today. Epifanio Fuentes is the center of this
family of wood carvers. He learned from his father Zenen
and is now working with his three sons, Zeni, Ivan & Efrain

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Gerardo Ortega

The Ortega Family who are renowned for their 100% hand-crafted 'betus' technique using simple 'barro' (clay) to create the most colorful, whimsical, surreal art of imagination. This technique has been passed to 5 generations of the Ortega family, 2 of which currently run the operation - the older 'hermano' (brother) Gerardo is the 'Gerente General' and then the other brothers Oscar and Eleutario oversee production and painting. The sons, daughters, nephews, and nieces who range in age of 16-30 work in production, design, and painting. It is truly a family operation. Their home in Santa Cruz de las Huertas is one in same their taller.
The creative process starts from the fine clay powder which they mix with water to create the clay which ends up a very dark brown color, then they mold all of the individual pieces needed to create a design and then piece them together, then the design is left to dry in the sun for 2 days, then they paint the designs and finally fire them in the kiln.

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Gorky Gonzales Jr.

Winner of the National Award of Sciences and Arts, Gorky Gonzalez is a Mexican national treasure. Distinctive Gorky designs have won awards and been exhibited in galleries worldwide. His company, Alfareria Tradicional, insures that all of its pieces are created and hand painted to the exact specifications of the traditional Majolica designs from the Spanish period in Mexico, 1521 – 1810. Every Gorky piece has a unique border, hand painted in classic Mediterranean color. Currently, Gorky Gonzalez owns his own ceramic workshop located in Guanajuato, Mexico. He works there with his son, Gorky Gonzalez Jr, where they continue to produce unique majolica ceramics for you to enjoy in your home.
100% food safe.

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Irma Garcia Blanca

Gifted with an extraordinary artistic skill, sensitivity, taste and tenderness, Irma is a prime example of the traditional potters in rural Oaxaca. Her large and small dolls, of natural tones, decorated with small animals, birds and flowers, displaying daily life and personal sense of fantasy.

Her traditional methods requires that she uses rudimentary tools like the volteador, a potter's wheel, with clay from surrounding villages.
From Atzompa, Oaxaca. Southern Pacific Mexico.

Featured in:
Great Masters of Mexican Folk Art
Out of Volcanoes

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Jose Juan Aguilar

The ceramic work of Demetrio Garcia and his younger brother Jose Juan is richly colored, exquisitely-detailed, and strongly masculine in style. The work of the two brothers is similar, yet different. The biggest differences are that Demetrio's work is more somber in color and spirit; Jose Juan's is brighter and sweeter. Both create work that is very intense, whereas Josefina's work is quite playful and humorous.

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Josefina Aguilar

Living in the village of Ocatlan, Oaxaca, the Aguilar sisters have become world famous for their painted ceramic figures. They developed their skill as young children taught by their father. In classic folk art tradition, they now pass on their knowledge to their children.
Josefina Aguilar gained international acclaim when her pieces were collected by Nelson Rockefeller during trips to Oaxaca in the 1970s. Most of the pieces created by the Aguilars focus on Mexican traditions and folklore including subjects like Frida Kahlo, Virgin de Guadalupe and Day of the Dead characters.

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Lenor

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Marela Santiago

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Martin Melchor

Martin Melchor and his wife Melinda Ortega began carving in the late 1980's. They are now among the most successful artisans in San Martin. Martins tool kit is relatively small, consisting of a machete, four knives, an electric drill, a gouge, and a couple of hammers. With these tools he creates wonderful whimsicle art~

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Moises Rodriguez

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Ricio

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Sergio Santos

Sergio Santos is an accomplished artist from one of the less well traveled carving villages around Oaxaca, La Union . He is known for his use of aniline dyes, instead of paint. These colors actually saturate into the copal wood, and lends a luminous intensidt with no surface sheen.

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Vili Mendoza