My friend Carrie who brought my wine into Renee Erickson’s restaurants in Seattle spends a lot of time in Mexico. And I knew she would have great recommendations for me for my Oaxaca trip with Carmen SanDiego.

Carrie suggested visiting a neighboring town called Etla (which also has 2,000 year old ruins no big deal) for a modern art museum inside of an old factory kinda like the DIA Beacon in New York. It’s called CASA Centro de las Artes San Augustin. We saw a beautifully curated exhibit of the Dutch printmaker Jan Hendrix’s collaboration with Irish poet Seamus Heaney. These guys were both really inspired by Oaxaca, Mexico. Maybe next time I go to Oaxaca, I’ll have a chance to visit Yagul a Zapotec town and see the mosaiced ruins at Mitla.

https://thelondonmagazine.org/seamus-heaney-jan-hendrix-shared-landscape-inspiration/

This silkscreen of a cactus on gold leaf is called The Golden Bough by Jan Hendrix from 1992

Carmen SanDiego and I also visited some traditional pottery workshops - “barro negro” is what the black clay is called - and a village that specializes in naturally dyed wool textiles and rug making. It was interesting that these ancient techniques are still being used to craft products that people use in their every day life.

If you go- Carmen SanDiego had the forethought and wherewithal to hire a driver to take us to these artisan villages. She was on a mission to do some serious shopping. If you’d rather stay in town, there are nice galleries in Oaxaca City that showcase traditional and more modern ceramic pieces and a small but interesting Textile Museum.

https://museotextildeoaxaca.org/

https://1050grados.com/

https://www.instagram.com/cuartosuspiro/

https://www.instagram.com/galeriatierraquemada/

Art and Artisanal Traditions of Oaxaca

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