Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: Threading together women’s stories

Above: Installation by Elena Martinez Bolio included in “Una Larga Hebra/A Long Stitch” at Museo de las Culturas de Oaxaca

As an artist, I am a conduit so that the moment of creation, which is so vast and profound, can emerge from the simplicity and humility of a needle. That is what I try to express in this exhibition, to marvel again and to find meanings in the garments we wear day by day, because they record memories of what is ours.” 

Elena Martinez Bolio, “A Long Thread

Artist Elena Martinez Bolio has spent years working alongside women in villages of the Yucatan. She has learned their techniques for what has often been dismissed as mere domestic craft and liberated those applications to relate her personal stories and theirs. We were fortunate to catch an exhibition of her work, “A Long Stitch,” at the Museum of Cultures of Oaxaca this past spring.

Continue reading “Postcard from Oaxaca, Mexico: Threading together women’s stories”

Popularity Contest Results

Above, 1912 New Year’s card from Chapter Seventeen of An Ostrich-Plumed Hat

You have been judging my posts, as always, for the past six months, picking and choosing whatever piques your interest. For several years, the focus here has been on travel, relying on extensive use of photographs. Well, 2020 certainly cut short this blogger’s boulevardier ways, so, instead, I have “gifted” you with my novel about the sensational 19teens’ tale of the doomed relationship of Hedda Burgemeister and Otto Koehler. More than thirty chapters of An Ostrich-Plumed Hat, and, Yes, She Shot Him Dead are now posted on this site.

an ostrich-plumed hat

The good news is that more of you have clicked on the Introduction and Chapter One than any other post since July. The flip side is less flattering; there was a steep drop off in readership by Chapter Two. Numerous chapters ranked in the top dozen of this biannual roundup, but, for the sake of variety and not to encourage skipping around in the book the way I read Moby Dick in high school – every fifth chapter (Did I miss much?), I am omitting them from the list. Am hoping for some more feedback from you, my beta readers, as this release continues.

Beyond that, you seem to still appreciate my efforts at populating Brackenridge Park with ghosts, railing about whatever in the world is happening to Alamo Plaza and spinning tales from vagabond times. And perhaps you are looking for miracles ahead in 2021.

Continue reading “Popularity Contest Results”

Postcard from Merida, Yucatan: Past time to fly back home

Been dreading this day. The blog has been lagging way behind our last trip before Covid lockdown. But here they are – the final photographic scraps of our month-long stay in Merida earlier this year.

Continue reading “Postcard from Merida, Yucatan: Past time to fly back home”