Gayle Brennan Spencer – sending random thoughts to and from South Austin
Street art doesn’t need a lot of superfluous verbiage. I’m not interfering with any of the artists’ messages upon delivering this final group of snapshots of walls that caught our attention while we were in Oaxaca in February. Just letting the art speak to you.
Continue reading “Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: Street art needs no translation”
Above, “El Guardian del Barrio,” Uli Martinez
Street art in Oaxaca entices you to wander down many side streets you might otherwise miss. It’s a colorful kaleidoscope mirroring the cultural heritage, contemporary concerns, heart and soul of its residents. Here’s another installment.
Continue reading “Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: Where blank walls are canvases”
Above, nine “migrants” from Alejandro Santiago’s “2501 Migrantes” haunt a balcony inside Museo de Arte Contemporaneo, MACO
There is a Zapotec saying…. “Why leave when you have it all here?”
Alejandro Santiago in 2501 Migrants: A Journey, directed by Yolanda Cruz, 2010
“Returning to his native Mexican village after many years, the artist was startled by what he didn’t see. ‘Where are my friends, my relatives?’ Alejandro Santiago asked the remaining residents of the town, Teococuilco de Marcos Perez, in a remote mountain area of Oaxaca state. Upon learning that most of them migrated from southern Mexico to the United States in search of work, he vowed to honor the departed and ‘repopulate’ his impoverished hometown.”
“Alejandro Santiago dies at 49,” Valerie J. Nelson, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2013
Continue reading “Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: Santiago’s ‘Migrants’ and protesters haunting MACO”
Postcards from Barton Springs 