28 March 2008

Art is where you find it.

In Mexico as well as in many other Latin American countries folk art is wherever you happen to find folks. Sometimes when traveling through little out of the way places I turn a corner and am pleasantly surprised and delighted at what I see. Such is the case when traveling though a pleasant little town named “Valle de Santiago” not far from where I live in Irapuato, Guanajuato. My gal Gina and I like to stop in “Valle” (VAHL-yeh), as the town is referred to locally, and buy deep fried charales which are little tiny fish that the region is noted for. Then we sit on the curb next to our friendly street vendor and eat our charales and watch the world go by. The last time we went there we were delighted that some folk artist had painted a picture on an old wooden door on an ancient dilapidated adobe building. In fact, the building was so old and dilapidated that there were weeds growing out of the roof. I’ll bet you could take that door off of that building though, and put it in any art gallery. However, the door is not for sale. It is for making folks happy. That is what folk art is really for. I took a few photos and you can see them below.

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I was born and raised in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A. I have been living in Mexico since January 6th, 1999. I am continually studying to improve my knowledge of the Spanish language and Mexican history and culture. I am also a student of Mandarin Chinese.