Momento Mori 2019

[bixaorellana]

You all want to see some of what is inside, don't you?

Tinware ~



The Coushatta tribe in Louisiana also make coiled basket work with longleaf pine needles ~



The textile arts are well represented ~









Alebrijes ~



Terrible photo of this absolutely gorgeous group of ceramics. I now own two pieces and can't stop gazing at them ~







And we are exiting the tent ~



💀     Más Muertos mañana!     💀

[bjd]

I understand why you like those ceramics. They are the nicest things in there.

[mickthecactus]

Indeed. But I like the pine needle baskets too.

[mickthecactus]

I also like the Ferocactus in the ruins!

[questa]

Oct 28, 2019 22:44:30 GMT lagatta said:

Those were splendid

This year is the year of Perfect Portraits...in the first 20 pics there were more perfect faces than National Geographic would see in a month. # 20 is a stunning young woman...look behind her and there is no doubt what the older woman is thinking!

[lagatta]

In terms of fairly inexpensive things, I wouldn't mind a pair of those ceramic earrings. I'd have to change the hooks though as I can't wear base metal. I do like some of the women's blouses, in muted colours. There is a really pretty muted red in one of the first pictures.

[mossie]

So very colourful as usual. I note Cheery has found an outlet for her dolls, a couple of pics before your beautiful ceramics.

The name Mitla intrigued me because there is a Mitla Pass through some forbidding hills in the north of the Sinai desert.

[kerouac2]

I am perhaps mistaken, but I don't think that you have ever shown us the farms where all of these marigolds and other flowers are grown. I don't even know if they are from the region of Oaxaca or if they are imported from the other end of the country. I'm sure that the fields of marigolds must be every bit as impressive as those Dutch tulip fields that are promoted so energetically in Europe.

[bixaorellana]

Bjd, the pavilion is always worth hitting for the possibility of something you've never seen before, or a particularly fine version of a traditional craft.

Mick, I was of course thinking of you when I snapped the ferocactus.

Questa, you commented on something Whatagain also noted, which is how devastingly good-looking Oaxaqueños can be. I've always loved my brothers remark from his first visit here: "So beautiful, and they just let them walk around loose."

LaGatta, the earrings in my last post are not ceramic, but wood, turned out by the same people who carve the fantasy creatures. The hooks are undoubtedly stainless steel.

Hee hee, Mossie ~ I did think of Cheery when I saw those dolls. They are sweet, but Cheery's are art. I also specifically took that last photo of the ruins for you, since you always zero in on stonework. Interesting about Mitla Pass.

Kerouac, you are in fact mistaken. For your penance go through ten years of DofD threads & link the marigold field posts here, along with excerpts from learnéd treatises on commercial flower farming.
If there are big flower farms around here, I've never seen them. Mostly what you see is a field here or there that has been planted to marigolds or cockscomb, but nothing even approaching the acres and acres devoted to them like the Dutch tulip fields. They've got to be growing them somewhere though, as the sheer mass arriving to markets in this city alone boggles the mind. That said, after noting the proliferation of greenhouses when flying over Xoxo, I asked my friend who is a nurseryman about it. He said that yes, more people are now growing ornamentals around here.

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We have now emerged from the folkcraft pavilion and are heading south on Alcalá, the pedestrian street ~

I was trying to get a picture of this when man came along and offered to take my picture if I wanted to stick my head into one of the openings. I politely declined, but he kept offering. What the hell is wrong with people? The whole world now thinks every photo has to include a shot of oneself.

Isn't this better than with my mug sticking out of the cut-out?



Equal time for a boy cutie ~









This place gets tricked out differently every year ~





Looking north from the atrium of Sangre de Cristo church ~



A fun bonus: this tiny tile stuck on the steps to the atrium ~

[bixaorellana]

At this point, I crossed the street in order to go over to a another, smaller folkcraft pavilion set up at the end of the plazuela across from the church. I needed to get pictures of something I'd seen there -- fancy versions of the market baskets I showed in the Mitla part of this report. I can't entirely decide how I feel about them. Are they everyones grandma's Thanksgiving centerpiece or are they simply lovely decorative items? Regardless, it's very nice work and a clever use of an old craft. The ceramic pieces in the center of the baskets come from Puebla, not Oaxaca. These objects are not cheap. The first one is 3800 mxn ~

Mission accomplished, I emerge from the tent and turn back into the plazuela ~



There is an altar set up here honoring the deceased artists of Oaxaca ~



Maestro Toledo is at bottom center ~



And some anyporters may recognize Alejandro Santiago, maker of the 2,501 Migrants ~



There are several of these, all different ~

[bixaorellana]

These objets d'art are always arrayed around this fountain and are for sale ~



As you see, some qualify as objets trouvés ~

[bixaorellana]

I headed south again on Alcalá, but only got to this point when I felt drops of rain ~





I cut through the folkcraft pavilion on the way home, just in case the rain started in earnest.
It was a good thing I did, because I got to see this lady from the Isthmus plying her needle ~





Just outside the pavilion, festive buñuelos are being prepared ~





A while later I hit the streets again, this time with the dogs in tow ~











In front of my neighborhood market ~



💀 💀 💀 That's it for October 31, but I have pictures from today, November 1, still on the camera. 💀 💀 💀

[questa]

You do it every year, Bixa, Colour! Colour! Colour! After a grey winter with clouds but no rain I seem to forget that such 'luridity' exists. This last pic nearly knocked me off my chair. How could you explain this to a person born blind?

[mickthecactus]

I don't think I have mentioned but the Mexican gift shop in town has closed down. Instead they have bought an old pub and are converting it to a Mexican restaurant.

[questa]

I can just see it after you have dined there...cactuses on every horizontal surface.

[mossie]

Such variety. What is the significance of the watch on the lobster?.

But horrified by the picture preceeding that, which I consider to be pornographic. Whoever heard of a masturbating tortoise???

[bixaorellana]

Thanks, Questa! I wouldn't say that every place needs to be as colorful as it is here, but when I see all the tourists in town, I always hope they'll go home and make room for at least a little more color in their lives.

That's a shame, Mick, but hardly surprising, right? I'd think their core clientele would have reached saturation point pretty quickly. Hope the restaurant is good and that you'll try it and report back.

You're really thinking I'm capable of explaining those sculptures, Mossie?! Also, you objected to the creature's actions, but not to his *ahem* cranium?

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Okay, it's time to wrap this up, especially since you all were promised no day of the dead report this year.
The last picture post was October 31. I went out yesterday afternoon, November 1 with the pooches, & here are the results ~

The altar at La Cosecha organic market ~





The market next to my house always has good altars for all occasions ~







Here we are at Plaza de la Danza. This little cutie had to squat down to better look at what interested him ~



And what had caught his attention? Perritos!



The altar at Plaza de la Danza is truly impressive ~

[bixaorellana]

Moving on toward the Alameda ~







I love that the garbage bins have been decorated for the occasion ~





This pleasant crew is made up of people from Belgium and from Spain ~



There is a choral concert in the bandstand in the zócalo ~



Snow White and Rose Red ~





Hotel on the northeast corner of the zócalo ~



We came through the super crowded area by the north wall of the cathedral and came out here ~





Heading on home. The dogs are hungry and not pleased with the crowds and the fireworks ~







That's it.
I send fond thoughts to all of you on this All Souls day, 2019.

[questa]

Regards to you too, Bixa. Thank you for posting this report after all.