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Terry Gaskins .......................................................................................................................................................Jan Keels

Jan is an incredible colorist and her work is very spiritual. Favorite quotes also often appear in her paintings and collages. Terry Gaskins, an outsider who started as a photographer, paints very cartoon-like images of people and skeletons. Her work is quite different from anything that we already have. Both of these artists are still trying to survive in a very ailing New Orleans. Jan is struggling to get back into her newly redone house which was totally under water. Electricity was disconnected in all of the flooded areas for safety reasons and occupancy permits must be obtained for the power to be reconnected. Unfortunately, the permitting office is severely understaffed and there is a very long wait for permits.

New Orleans is still in very sad shape and much of the city is in need of major repair work. Even on St. Charles Avenue, which did not flood, only about 1/3 of the businesses have returned and are functioning, 1/3 are boarded up and closed, and the remainder are undergoing repairs. Areas which were badly flooded are nowhere close to bring this populated. The French Quarter, which did not flood, is in good shape physically, but the financial condition is not good. Businesses have been closing because there is not the level of tourism to sustain them. And levees have not been rebuilt the way they need to be to protect the city. Our government has not done well by them.

One thing that is thriving in New Orleans, however, is the Mardi Gras industry. We visited the Algiers facility of Blaine Kern, the master designer of Mardi Gras props, floats, and costumes, and we were amazed by this creative environment of artists at work. Floats and scenery are designed and constructed in a group of metal buildings that are as large as football fields. All house dozens of huge floats that are redesigned and rebuilt for successive Mardi Gras seasons. There is a large room where visitors can try on elaborate costumes and headdresses or large heads of famous figures from Marilyn Monroe to Lyndon Johnson. You can rent space and stage your wedding in the middle of a parade in storage, if you desire. Touring here is like being behind the scenes at Disney and is a strongly recommended trip if you are visiting New Orleans.

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You will also enjoy riding the Canal Street ferry to Algiers and back rather than just driving across the Mississippi River bridge. You can even walk onto the ferry and walk the whole way on the other side or wait for a bus. Another must (this one in the Quarter) - the House of Blues, which is housed in a very neat folk art environment. We were lucky enough to see and hear my favorite, Dr. John. And Bourbon Street was quite riotous on New Year's Eve, even now, and people came out of the walls to see the fireworks display on the levee next to Jackson Square.

Guatemala
Later in January, we went to Guatemala for the very first time. Since it is still not safe to travel in Oaxaca, I decided it was time for some exploration of new territory. Guatemala is an incredibly beautiful country. We spent 10 days there with my good friend, Deborah Brown, owner of Colores del Pueblo and former buyer for Pueblo to People. Deborah has been there many, many times and was a fantastic guide.

We started out in the market in Guatemala City, but found that rather disappointing. From there we drove to Antigua, the former capital. (It was there that we noticed that the teller machines weren't working. Never depend totally on them for money when you are traveling.) Antigua has been destroyed by earthquakes many times, but it is still the favorite charming getaway spot for G.C. residents. Its colonial charm is carefully maintained. Unfortunately, many of the old colonial churches were long ago reduced to ruins, but one can look at the ruins and imagine the former splendor! Antigua looks much like an old colonial Mexican city, with only walls and windows visible from the streets and the doors opening to beautiful courtyards inside. (One big difference is the volcanoes that are part of the skyline!!)

It is not nearly as commercial as Oaxaca or San Miguel and lacks the many storefront windows of those towns, so you have to cross portals to find out what is there. There are excellent restaurants and hotels. The Hotel Santo Domingo, built from the rescued ruins of the old Santo Domingo church and convent, is a fascinating place to spend a couple of hours. The old altar is all that remains of the church and the entire church area has been remade into an outdoor theatre, with the altar at the back of the stage.

Only feet away are the remnants of the crypts in which the nuns were buried. A couple are intact and you can view the bones inside. The grounds here cover several acres and there is a huge abundance and never-ending variety of tropical flowers and an outstanding collection of contemporary Guatemalan art.

The food is similar, but at the same time, quite different from that found in Mexico. Corn tortillas and tacos are plentiful, but you don't find enchiladas and not nearly as much chile is used in preparing food. Food is less hot and spicy, but there is an impressive wealth of very fresh vegetables that taste like they have just been picked. We saw cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, cabbage, chayote, tiny pattypan and yellow squash in abundance in the fields and on the tables everywhere we went. Everything served was very fresh, as evidenced by the photo below, taken outside a well-known barbeque restaurant on the highway.

There is a good artisans' market in Antigua and a couple of other good places to buy native textiles, but there is not nearly the variety and quality of other types of folk art in Guatemala that there is in Mexico. This was a disappointment. We pretty much saw the same masks, the same santos and woodcarvings wherever we went. We were able to shop and look really hard and find a couple of artists doing outstanding pieces, but not many. I cannot help but feel that there has to be a great master out there that we did not find, but there were no wonderful folk art galleries in Antigua to show off such work if it exists. The creative splendor of Guatemala is in its native textiles. The depth and breadth of the weaving, embroidery, and needlework skills of the Mayan people is staggering! I used to be a weaver and I taught textiles for five years at the University of Houston and the weaving studio in the Fine Arts Department at TSU for one year. I was in heaven in the textile markets!! I came back from this trip with absolute treasures!! These should be out in the gallery in a couple of weeks. Figuring out where I bought what and where it came from is going to take a while!!

From Antigua, we drove to Panajachel on beautiful Lake Atitlan. When we got there, the teller machines still were not working. It was when we were in line in one of the three banks in town trying to exchange money that we found out what was happening. One of Guatemala's main banks had crashed the week before, the second major bank crash in about four months. Tourists in the country were trying to get Guatemalan money. Guatemalans were trying to get their money out of the bank that had crashed. There was literally a run on the banks. The crashed bank was closed. The open banks were limiting the amount of money you could exchange or cash in traveler's cheques. Some to $300, some to $100 American. Students from other countries dependent totally on bank cards were stranded and confused. My only saving grace was a strange hunch before this trip to go with enough cash and traveler's checks for buying. I usually rely on bank cards for at least 50% of the money I spend because I do not feel safe carrying a lot of cash. That hunch saved me this time. Thank you, Guardian Angel! This trip was a most interesting and difficult lesson in economics. I spent hours standing in bank lines to get hard, cold, very worn quetzals!!

On Tuesday morning, officials reopened the bank that had failed so that account holders could get vouchers to get their money out of the remaining banks. The line of people at this bank was several blocks long by midday. After that, the bank lines everywhere REALLY got long! The tour agencies which exchanged money for higher rates became a real blessing!! Getting enough cash for a day of shopping would mean exchanging $100 American for quetzals at one bank, then standing in line at a second to cash $200 in traveler's checks, and then going to a travel agent or two for more money exchange. Not the most fun way to spend time, but at least better than having only a bank card and not being able to shop at all. The teller machines did not start working for nine days, and then they only gave out $50 at a time! We need to periodically question our dependence on our computers!

Panajachel was more than standing in bank lines, though! It is the tourist mecca on the shores of Lake Atitlan, which was made thousands of years ago when the top blew off of a volcano in the Guatemalan highlands. The lake is very high, very deep, very large, and is surrounded by several volcanoes. The scenery here is incredibly beautiful. Panajachel is a town of many old hippies: hippies moved here in the 1970's to eke out a living and many have never left. It is also a town of native Mayans and many, many expatriates from all over the world. There is an amazing variety of restaurants serving every kind of food available, and health food is in abundance here. Vendors selling more bad handwoven textiles than one can imagine chase you down the street here and don't give up easily. (There are also wonderful textiles, but you have to look for them!) Hard bargaining is the rule of the day and the goal is for everyone to end up happy with the agreed-on price.

There are about ten small to not so small Mayan villages around the lake, the most famous of which is Santiago Atitlan. We spent a day going to some of the smaller villages and meeting with weavers and buying textiles. Each village in Guatemala has its own distinctive native dress. The traditional women's blouse is the huipil, and each village has a different color and pattern woven and/or embroidered into its huipiles. The things that sets some huipiles from a village apart from the others are the quality and fineness of the weave, the fiber content, and the embroidery. This is where my knowledge of weaving comes in handy!! I generally looked through dozens of weavings before making a decision to buy a few.

Santiago Atitlan, also called Atitlan (like the lake) is directly across the lake from Panajachel, so the trip is usually made by boat. The road is long and there are often robbers, so the boat is safer, so they say. There are two kinds of boats - small ones that carry about 10 people and much larger tourist boats that operate on busier days and have an upper and lower deck. Only the small boats were operating when we went. The lake is very windy and the trip over was quite choppy.

Atitlan is famous for its huipiles of purple stripes on a white background ornately adorned with beautiful birds. The best ones are considered to be among the finest huipiles in Guatemala and are among the most expensive. So one must go to Atitlan to find huipiles. The other main attraction is the shrine to Maximon (sometimes also called San Simon), a Mayan deity who incorporates both good and evil traits. The statue of Maximon is carefully guarded and cared for by a religious group called a cofradia. They move him from house to house regularly and keep his location hidden. So to find him and see him, one must have a guide. Finding a guide is not a problem, because as soon as you disembark, you are literally surrounded and attacked by tour guides and vendors shoving every thing imaginable into your face. Being surrounded like this was extremely annoying, and I am used to dealing with large Mardi Gras crowds in New Orleans. I felt totally defenseless with such a confrontation.

The guide who took us to Maximon got the job because he literally would not go away. I have never before looked anyone straight in the face and told him to go away, but I quite angrily did it this time and he still clung to us! For at least 45 minutes - until we had to follow him and pay him to get rid of him. I wanted to see Maximon, just NOT with this pest.

We were led through a maze of tiny streets and alleyways. (I think this is part of the plan. You are never supposed to be able to find this place on your own!) Eventually we were led into a very small house and into a festively decorated small room with several chairs facing a small wooden statue dressed in a black suit, wearing a black hat, and holding several cigarettes in his mouth. Maximon is a strange combination of good and evil, and he is known for his debauchery and entrusted with the care of young virgins. The Mayans give him cigarettes to gain his favor. We were asked if we also wanted to smoke a cigarette and give it to him. I decided that this was not a good time to start smoking and a bad place to start choking, so I turned down the offer. That was probably a mistake, because within a minute, I looked for my Nikon digital to take some pictures and it was gone. I am sure that it must have disappeared during the earlier onslaught of guides and vendors, but who knows, maybe it disappeared when I foolishly turned down the cigarette. The Mayan cofrades in the room uttered incantations and spit alcohol over a fire they had lit (a part of all the Mayan ceremonies we saw). Along the side of the room was a lifesized coffin covered with glass with something that looked like a mummy inside. I was told by the guide that this was the father of Maximon. This was indeed a fascinating place. Our visit lasted about 20 minutes. We were then ushered out and the next tourists were ushered in. Back to where we started and free of the guide at last!!

We made our way to the small plaza and visited the lovely church there. We found a group of women in native Atitlan dress chanting in Mayan in the chapel. Guatemalan churches are much simpler on the inside than Mexican churches because they have been destroyed by earthquakes so many times. In rare cases, you will find the same ornately carved wooden altars if one happened to survive. The interiors are usually white, simple, and very folksy, with handcarved statues dressed in robes and clothes lovingly made by the parishioners. Guatemalan Catholicism seems to be much closer to and more intimately involved with the people. ..........

We worked our way back to the shore, looking at many, many textiles along the way and picking up some gorgeous huipils and bird embroideries. Also a few hardwood sculptures of the Mayan natives, a few paintings of people in native dress, and some clever hardwood puzzles. It was getting late and we did not want to miss the last boat back to Pana. Little did we know what we were getting into. Deborah had told me earlier in the day that the water got quite choppy in the afternoon. The wind currents on the lake usually pick up in the afternoon and by nightfall, towns on the lake become very cold and windy. The minute the boat hit the water, I knew I wasn't going to like this! With the outboard motor racing, the fiberglass boat hit the water with a vengeance. Over and over and over again. Bam, bam, bam, bam. The boat slammed so hard on the water every few seconds that I was holding myself above the seat so my already bad disc did not get injured again. I am sure that my knuckles were getting white. The boat trip across the lake took about a half hour and everyone on the boat was terrified. Even the 15-year old boy from Australia sitting next to me was afraid the hull would crack in two. There was a sadistic grin of Latin macho pleasure on the face of the boatsman as he raced the boat as fast as it could go. I wondered how cold the deep, deep water must be and wondered about our chances of surviving if the boat broke. Held my breath. Finally, the other side of the lake in view. A few more agonizing minutes and then we were there. Sometimes the price of adventure is higher than I like it to be.

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The Boat from Hell is the little bitty one on the far left by the dock!

The next morning, we headed for Chichicastenango, the site of one of the oldest indigenous marketplaces in the Western Hemisphere. Chichi is a fairly small town which comes to life twice a week on market days. ......................

Some woodcarvings and masks made in the area are sold here, and we found some really fine examples of each, but the real treasures here are textiles. There are probably a couple of dozen people who bring outstanding examples of handwoven clothing and cloths from the surrounding villages to sell here. I spent at least five or six hours going through only the very best pieces, and I still did not have time to see everything. I found lovely weavings here of extremely fine quality, new and old, beautiful machine-embroidered belts and fine, handmade bags that are worn by the men. I also found an artist here who makes very finely painted carved wooden masks and santos. Arturo AjCanil does the santos and masks to his right.

He and a dealer in old textiles each gave me a lesson on Mayan symbolism. In between shopping, the banking mess continued and I waited in line for 45 minutes in a tiny bank to cash $300 in travelers' checks.

Chichi is also a place to see Mayan religious ceremonies performed several times a day on the steps of the two churches on the plaza, in the cemetery with its brilliantly colored tombs, and on the top of a hill just outside of town where there is a statue of the Mayan deity, Pascual Abaj. Our steep climb up to this site brought us through the woods, where there are always gorgeous bromeliads and orchids blooming wild in the trees. At the top, we looked down on the large, beautifully colorful cemetery.

From Chichi, we slowly made our way back to Panajachel, Antigua, Guatemala City and the airport. I had fallen in love with Guatemala and I can't wait to go back!

Please remember that there are good reasons besides beauty and affordable art to buy folk art, both ethnic and from the U. S. We are trying to support artists. We think fair trade is very important, we pay fair prices for our folk art, and we try to buy directly from the artist as much as possible. These artists are often poor and desperately need the money they get from our purchases, Without the buyer, these art forms will die. If ethnic art forms die, an important part of those cultures will also die, and they will blend into an ever-growing world homogeneity which is much blander and less sustainable. Yes, sustainability is important as well. Indigenous Mexicans and Guatemalans (as well as other indigenous peoples worldwide) are experts at living in harmony with the earth. As global warming gets worse, we will have to learn much from their non-wasteful ways of life to save our planet. Our American outsider artists also recycle many items into their work which would otherwise be discarded. The purpose of our artists is to march to the tune of a different drummer and with their special vision lead us to a better future. In the words of a New Mexico gallery owner I once worked with, ART SAVES LIVES! One of the objectives of Las Manos Mágicas is to offer a "real" aesthetic alternative to the commercial plastic items sold in our Wal Mart culture.

 

 

Photos by Madeleine Crozat-Williams ©2007, All Rights Reserved.