Trip: National Museum of Mexican Art; Chicago, Illinois

Purchased!, originally uploaded by pejnolan.

The day didn't start off too well. I was literally 10 seconds late for the train. It was pulling out right as I drove into my parking space. Crap. The next train didn't leave for 2 hours. We thought we could get to another station and beat the train there, but that plan didn't work out either and we ended up driving anyway. Crap again.

Once we were there, the museum was wonderful and we just happend to arrive during the annual folk art festival where Jacobo and Maria Angeles were selling their work! I can't believe it! Last year at my solo show at the DeKalb Area Womens Center, Jay Paul Bell and Julie Kiefer-Bell said that my acrylics were similar to the artists of Oaxaca, Mexico. I thought that was strange because I was studying the work of Australian Aboriginals at the time. Now that I see the Angeles' work I completely understand the comparison. You can view his work at: http://tilcajete.org Michael and Elaine Bennett were there purchsing a large piece as well. They come every year specifically to purchase from this artist.


The Women of Jurarez exhibit was very powerful and elicited strong emotions including anger that this wasn't being reported in the mainstream news sources. This is a tragety for women everywhere. The artists definitely did their job to enlighten the viewers of the subject as well as making the viewer want to scream out at the injustice of it all. I am going to do some more research to see how I can help.

The second exhibit, Dia de los Muertos, was just plain fun! My favorite pieces were:
1. a life-sized paper mache sculpture showing an old lady skeleton wearing a huge red hat and crazy earrings between two laughing skeleton men. An adorable skeleton dog was wagging its tail at their feel. It just made me smile!

2. A print that was created with a steamroller. It was of a skeleton (of course). I wasn't allowed to take photos in that room.

3. An "alter" to a grandmother complete with her favorite coffee in her favoriate porcelain cup. A piece of cake, her favorite books and chair waiting for her. I guess Dia de los Muertes entices the spirits of the dead relatives to come home by leaving out their favorite items. It is like a homecoming.

After the museum, we took the pink line into Chicago and walked over to the XOCO, a new restaurant by Rick Bayless. We waited a long time, but the food was delicous! Chef Rick Bayless was there and we took photos. I hope we didn't break protocol, but what the heck?!? We decided that had we made the train on time, we most likely would not have see Chef Bayless or have been able to sit together. All things have a purpose. We laughed alot during dinner. It felt good to sit down and relax.

Then came the long drive home. Thank you to Nancy(!), Al, Elinor, Maria and Emely for making memories with me today!
"It is always an adventure."