Art in San Miguel Vol.I 
Book Gallery

Summer 2009 presentation of the First Edition

alTirado’s “Art in San Miguel” showcases local artist
by Lulu Torbet

The presentation of the book Art In San Miguel in this summer season renew the importance of the publication. On the original presentation at the beginning of this year it was a great success because of the content. For the first time in San Miguel this book brings 33 local artists of different styles, origins and cultures. Most of the artists are painters but the content includes also sculptors and ceramicists.

The main reason of this re-presentation of the book is that we are at the beginning of the summer and that means a new season for the arts in San Miguel. We have new residents and a new wave of visitors is coming, many of them are perennial returnees and many others are coming for the first time attracted by the artistic panorama in San Miguel.

There is an additional attraction. The presentations of the book will be surrounded by an exhibition of works of the same artists who appear in the book. That means a unique show with so many artists together under one roof.

The purpose of this presentation and the exhibit is primarily the promotion of the book, but in this occasion, the artists have decided to donate a good percentage of the sales to charity of several programs.  (obras de caridad).

There will be the opportunity to meet the artists, have your picture taken and have your book signed by the artist of your preference, while enjoying the cocktail reception.

Artists featured in the First Volume

	The most difficult part of writing an artist statement is to figure out first who you are at any moment and then put down the words to convey the concept to another. Grounding comes with understanding the self as a conscious being, and painting icons is my chosen format for that exploration of such mysteries. The word icon means image. Icons have a visual force of their own, a truth to convey, beauty to be revealed and finally a message. Often I think the message is just that the beauty and truth found in the image of man are valuable and worth preserving. These images touch areas of the psyche and inspire connections that are seen without sight. Iconography is the practice of transforming the invisible divine and making it visible in the world. The thoughts and concepts of the mind are translated into a symbolic language devoid of linguistic constraints...

	Some people say that the art of ceramics is “accidental.” The results are unknown until the kiln is opened. There may be a certain element of truth in this statement, but I believe that ceramics offer the artist infinite possibilities for creativity.    Clay is organic material and the ceramicist in the process of creation tries to avoid surprises. For this reason, skill and experience are required.   For centuries ceramists have produced, over and over, the same simple, basic pot forms, that are nonetheless distinguished by their individuality and creativity. To transform the clay, which is to say “to give life to the clay,” one must explore the infinite possibilities in the creation of forms, but these forms should not be foreign to, or separate from, daily life.  Some people think that “good” means “strange” or “unusual,” and therefore they strive for something different, yet do not achieve creativity or individuality...

Gerardo Ruiz Maldonado was born in 1948 in Puebla, México. He studied at the famed Academy of San Carlos in Mexico City, the first art school established in the Americas (founded in 1781).
After graduating from the Academy of San Carlos, he was awarded a scholarship to continue his postgraduate studies in Sculpture and began his career as a Professor of Visual Arts at
San Carlos.
Gerardo’s artistic work includes sculpture, painting, etchings and multimedia techniques. He has shown his work in more than 25 individual exhibitions and over 150 collective ones in Mexico and outside his native country. His works are part of permanent collections in museums in Venezuela, Bulgaria and Spain.
Since 1993, he works and teaches out of his studio located in San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato.

I have found that still life work opens a wide range of possibilities for the infinite arrangement and selection of both the reality at hand as well as the formal pictorial elements: space, form, color,
light and composition. In this respect, Still Life work embodies a unique built in duality or ambiguity, since the work can be both formal and abstract, while at the same time remaining firmly
anchored to material reality. I am often asked why I paint Still Life paintings and its Caravaggio’s famous reply that often comes to mind as an answer, ¨ it is as difficult to paint a good Still Life picture of fruit, as one of human figures¨. However, more often my reply is that it is a choice, like many we make in art and in life. Still life painting has come to symbolize in my experience the essence of what painting has always been: That which is visual, still and silent, the echo of our existence, the trace of our passing.

My work as a sculptor is a search for meaningful 
universal images.
It is also a response to different materials, wood, steel, stone, and bronze in an attempt to bring out the inherent properties and beauty of each one.  I`m interested in the feelings my objects evoque in the spectator.  As a process of self discovery I find that often the reason for making a specific piece isn`t always clear in the moment but only becomes evident once one has reached a point of
conclusion or later. Sometimes the work a reinterpretation of form as I perceive it in nature, be it the human figure, animal or organic form.
Rather than an idea base art, mine is materialistic object based sculpture.
I find myself working with the materials that I have on hand and manipulating them in order to enhance their inherent beauty and rhythm.

 

My journey through painting began at an early age in Odessa, Texas and continued through studies at the University of Texas. When marriage and family career changes led me to Venezuela, I continued studying at the Bellas Artes in Caracas and Maracaibo. Returning to Houston, I ontinued to be encouraged by scholarships and awards at the Houston Museum of Fine Arts’ Glassell School. Following the lifelong path of learning led me to study in France, Italy and at the Instituto Allende in San Miguel de Allende, where I studied with Jaime Pinto. Most recently the Bellas Artes in San Miguel, hosted a major exhibition of my work entitled “Mexcavations”, inspired by the murals, drawings and structures of Mexican pyramids. The show was  sanctioned by the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes and Consejo Nacional para Cultura de Artes …
The journey continues.   

Five, perhaps, six decades ago, as I started on my creative path, I had to find a world that belonged to me. I found it in nature, in the biomorphic forms, an inspired field of awesome beauty, power, intelligence. My paintings have been labeled lyrical abstractions, they really are nature in all its diversity.  For years I pondered the
possibilities of landscape. A much used theme,
yet there was a window for a personal vision.
I still use the landscape motif, much simplified, focused on distance, space and brush strokes. Presently, I find myself at crossroads, where the art work at large continues a dialog of social and politic engagement outside the traditional confines of art. I can not deny the very ground that evokes and conjures the magical illusions that exist in an imaginative mental space, forms
that transform, colors that glow, brush strokes
that speak, compositional relationships that
matter and ultimately lead to a mystical...

	It was the search for a language, through which I could freely express freely my ideas and feelings, without damaging the sensitivities of others; that carried me back to my interest in the arts, finding in them a language that, although subjective relative to to the accepted criteria, is immediate and direct.  My artistic anxieties have been with me ever since I can remember; since the time when I did not want to attend kindergarten, stipulating that one day I would be a painter, and I remember my mother trying to convince me that if did not learn to write my name, I would never be able to sign an artwork. This, and other occurences in my everyday life distracted me from my determination which, in its innocent way, already indicated the passion that to this day gives direction to my steps.

TOLLER CRANSTON  --  International Artist  --  London  --  Paris  --  New York  --  Frankfurt  --  Vienna  --  Hong Kong  --  Moscow

The content of pictorial works and objects refers to an exquisite creative process that offers a port, or a way station of thought, which for biographical situations, both anchors and discovers, possessing the virgin land and indicates the possible languages, because the appropriation of images is an aesthetic state
of awareness, the same as the impulse to discover a continent full of visual surprises. Arias was born in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, and inspired by the life of the port, decided to journey to understand the outside world..
The most important journey was his own interior trip to explore the plasticity of the arts, of visual language... 
 

The journey toward self discovery brought Mary
Breneman to San Miguel Allende. She came here to paint the magic of Mexico.  Why Mexico? Mexico’s soulful elements of beauty, inspiration and the unexpected visual moments that present themselves everywhere inspire her work. This is self evident in her spacious desert landscapes, the charreada (horsemanship events)and the everyday life of Mexico. There is an energy that Mary brings to her paintings that reflects the essence of the Mexican culture. Painting makes her feel alive.
“When I go into the studio I can be exhausted and suddenly feel energized.”
Clearly there is a synergy between the joy of the act of painting, and the inspiration created by the
subject manner. The artist has discovered a sweet spot within herself. doesn’t. The painting tells me what it needs...

How many of us survive childhood intact, without losing the innate, positive self-concept of the child artist? How many insensitive or abusive teachers affect us negatively? How few of us recover?
Thirty years working with students and teachers as a teacher and educational consultant made me
clearly aware of the thin line we walk between success and disappointment each time we
attempt to represent ourselves through the arts.
The gift of retirement permitted me to revisit a place long-dormant in my mind and heart. A place where colors, images, textures and forms lived, waiting to be expressed. Fortunately for me, finding this place coincided with and was
inspired by, my first visit to San Miguel de Allende. Here the light, the energy, the vibrancy of life and the stimulation of an environment
filled with creative people ...

		St. Louis Missouri where I was born and raised has a wonderful museum. When I was taken there as a small child for programs and lessons, I ecided to grow up to be an artist. Many years later I find myself still growing, but as an artist. With the help of several wonderful characters, most notably Paul Manship and Max Beckman, I have learned to take chances with the tools of art; to look for hidden messages in the visual world. As Beckmann’s friend and sometimes model, I was given a special look in to the work of a singular creative spirit. That experience helped inspire me and to go trying to find hidden meanings only available when hand and eye are linked to paint, paper, clay or whatever combination of materials becomes the vehicle to the unique encounter called ”artistic vision.”

celebration, fiesta...
an open full box,
tiger with  yellow eyes, rock-n-roll, mariachi, the life;
the surprise, the joy, crazy ideas, the joke, the black
the guitar, the cat and the violin, the ambivalence,
the kites, the bicycle, the skateboard, the piano,
lot of red, like the sun, the oranges, like the fire,
the blue, the green, the yellow, the red, 
happy sex, the love always.  The black,
the airplane, the tree, the woman,
the fish, music, live music, 
the dog, the coyote, the bull,
mainly to fly ;  the wolf,
to swim, to fly, 
the pelicans soaring, ...

The pictorial work of Gloria Espino gives ample evidence of the persistence of life, as reflected in the colors, textures and shapes needed to enjoy life, a full life without fear or remorse. One might
call it naive, expressing gratitude, joy, and peace. I'm referring to the content of her works, always in harmony with the techniques employed, and to the way she uses them, allowing them to flow
like watercolors to create random effects. As a girl plays with time, draws, writes, she expresses herself directly with the aim of making her life happy; to recreate her Being. Gloria, in writing on
the canvas tries to determine the most complete moment in the realization of her work, the same moment that occurs as the viewer reads it. In this way there is an interaction with the spectator as he recites the sentences and sees how the beauty of the colors is driven by the texts...

Britt Zaist is widely known for her bold, gestural, sumi-like ink drawings, especially those of animals. People also know her for her brilliant
abstract paintings on paper in lightfast ink, metallic watercolor, acrylic and collage. She also works on canvas with poured liquid acrylics. 
These designs in permanent ink suggest, rather than describe: birds on the wing, mountain landscapes, the clear depths of the ocean, or
cascades of brilliant color. In San Miguel de Allende, her drawings took off. She has been busy keeping up with the demand. Her pet portraits for pet lovers on the internet and in San Miguel have proven to be very popular.  A mark of her success is that her images have been widely copied by commercial ventures! The ink paintings are in the tradition of the color-field painter Morris Louis and the mystic Paul Jenkins. At a distance, the pictures are handsome ...

My themes have to do with the fire and spontaneity of color and gesture.  Many of the paintings exploit the principles of simultaneity in which several angles or aspects of form can be perceived in the same pictorial space.  Music and poetry cross over and influence the palette and directional forces of my work, as does my European background where folk tales and beliefs run close to the surface of daily life.  I’ve
studied and been attracted to Oriental art and perspective, as well as native and naif art.  I try to
consolidate unity and chaos; sheer enjoyment of color married with linear and structural forces.  My investigations into the psychology of perception, development and application of esthetic criteria and poetic implications of the image have had an effect on my own work.”
 Tim Hazell and his wife Louise make their home in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico... 

Born in Mexico City, Silvia Velásquez started painting in 1981, in the workshops of Loló de la Barra and Martha  Orozco, and with master Nishizawa at La Esmeralda School. In 1984 she traveled to Florence, Italy, to study under the direction of Nerina Simmi and attended the
Liberal School of the Nude. In 1988 she moved to France to study in the Académie de Beux-Arts in Paris, and later at The School of Decorative Arts of Strasbourg.
Since 1991 she has been a resident of San Miguel de Allende, where she paints portraits, nudes and landscapes. She always work directly with her subject, be it a person or a mountain range, expressing through the nuances of
brushwork and color, sensations that penetrate the superficial details of what is in front of her.
She has had exhibitions of her work in Mexico, Italy, France, Spain, Zaire and Japan.

The work of José Luís Ramirez emerges from the traditions of San Miguel de Allende. Specifically, it stems from a family of artisans situated in Cieneguita, a popular community known for its patriotic and religious festivals, which have been characterized as pre-hispanic rites practiced since ages past. This is an important distinction  when it comes to understanding the themes that José
Luís  develops in his work: they are securely anchored in  popular traditions. Concerned about the origin and destiny of the people, his intention is to dignify the traditional customs with modern representations such as  Cubism, and the specific use of figurative styles. He has great admiration for Mexican art, in particular the Mexican school of painting, with its famed exponents Diego Rivera,  David Alfaro Siqueiros, José Clemente Orozco and Frida  Kahlo, as well as for artists such as Pablo Picasso...

I born in meso-America, in my veins run´s the Indians and the conquerors blood, catholic of origin and with parents brightly Cartesians, self educated between the pragmatic thought, the inner freedom and the oriental masters’ philosophy. My drawing is like a mirror, doesn’t
show the ideal but the reality the way it is, unmerciful, the self-knowledge, the communion and acceptation, represents the external structure, what the senses perceive and the reason says, the continuous movement.
My painting uses the colors of my land, red and ochre where the blue and the green discretely shows, tastes like coffee, is spontaneous, unworried, my way to communicate with others, playfulness expression of my origin and understanding the pleasure of been alive.

 

 

Edina Sagert was born and raised in Berlin, West Germany. In 1987 she became a permanent resident of the U.S., where she earned a degree in graphic arts. For inspiration throughout her
professional life she has principally drawn on the experiences of growing up in a post-war Germany struggling to reconstruct itself. From the beginning, the provocative legacy of the earlier
German Expressionists informed her process as well. Further, her extensive travels through Europe, Asia, North, South and Central
America have added numerous cultural influences to her of work. Evident in Sagert’s synthesis of these influences is her strong attraction to rich textures and dense colors. The portrait is often
her subject matter. Although it is not her direct intention that these paintings be confrontational or frightening, many collectors perceive them in this way. Sagert herself sees them more...

Marion Perlet is one of San Miguel's most respected and internationally known artists.   Born in Munich, Germany, in 1940, she emigrated from post-war Germany to Montreal, Canada.  There she studied fine art at the prestigious French University, Ecole des Beaux Arts.  Ms. Perlet began mounting one-woman shows in Montreal, Toronto and other parts of Canada.  Her paintings are owned by private clients and museums.  In 1990, she became a permanent resident of San Miguel de Allende, where she has maintained a high profile within the artistic community.   Over the last 15 years, she has exhibited in galleries and institutions in Mexico, Canada and abroad.  Her most recent artistic accomplishment is a book entitled, "The Art of Marion Perlet, from the Outside  Looking In."  This splendid book presents a veritable retrospective, spanning five decades of her
finest work.

Dee Ropers has been developing her artistic style for a lifetime. She has enjoyed experimenting with large constructions of welded metal sculpture, as well as small detailing on tiny boxes. Her medium has often varied, but she continually returns to
mixed media as her favorite method of expression. Originally from the San Francisco Bay area, she has spent many years as a high-tech  designer, trainer and marketing engineer in  Silicon Valley. One cannot help but notice that some of the patterns and regularity of  her work comes from the influence of her  technical background.
Dee is fortunate to have spent significant
time painting in Florence and Paris, and has
traveled extensively, to places such as Bali,
Hong Kong, Russia and Turkey in order to 
enhance her style.
It has been a blessing for her to have arrived
in the charming and creative town...

The most difficult part of writing an artist statement is to figure out first who you are at any moment and then put down the words to convey the concept to another. Grounding comes with understanding the self as a conscious being, and painting icons is my chosen format for that
exploration of such mysteries. The word icon means image. Icons have a visual force of their own, a truth to convey, beauty to be revealed and finally a message. Often I think the message is just that the beauty and truth found in the image of man are valuable and worth preserving.
These images touch areas of the psyche and inspire connections that are seen without sight. Iconography is the practice of transforming the
invisible divine and making it visible in the world. The thoughts and concepts of the mind are translated into a symbolic language devoid of
linguistic constraints. I am currently experiencing a shift in my own interior...

I've lived more places than most people visit in a lifetime, and San Miguel de Allende feels like home.  I was born in California and have spent most of my life there and in Arizona and New Mexico, with shorter stints in Texas, Florida, Norway, France and the Caribbean.  San Miguel caught my attention about 15 years ago and I began spending significant time here in 2007.
 I paint because not to paint is unthinkable.  I can't take credit for being the author of that statement, but it's the absolute truth. 
There is a drive to be in front of the palette and get out of my own way.  When I'm painting, whether working with encaustic, oil or acrylic, there is nothing else on my mind.  It's a pure space, a sort of  communion with everything and nothing, everyone or just me, and an attempt to express what lies within.The word encaustic is from the Greek, meaning "to burn in". 

When Emily Severinsen retired from a
career in television, in 1993, she began
looking for a new voice.  In giving up her
pen, she found a brush and has not
stopped painting since.   Emily is drawn to
artists as diverse (and similar) as
Diebenkorn and Matisse, Avery and Van
Gogh, for their freedom of brush stroke
and lush use of paint and  color.  She
continues to study and paint in her La
Aurora studio and believes there is  
mystery and magic in every artistic pursuit.
She is also inspired by, and grateful to, her
teachers in San Miguel: Edgardo
Kerlegand (drawing), and Edgar Soberon 
(painting) --both featured in this book.  

I grew up in the Big Thicket National Preserve of Southeast Texas. Once a hideout for renegades, pacifists, recluses and dreamers, the Thicket is a land of mysterious swamps,  forests and bayous with imaginative place names such as  Splendora,
Sour Lake and Camp Ruby . My art is directly influenced by having grown up in a bewitched landscape inhabited by people who had a dark and satirical point of view.  I am also influenced by the architecture and clothing of ancient
civilizations, by tribal art and ceremonial objects, old dolls, toys and utilitarian vessels. I am always on the lookout  for objects that contain spirit, personality and mystery—objects such as
buttons, door keys, street wire, discarded pieces of machinery, beads, bones, and bric-a-brac. Most of  my findings are used in my art. If I can’t use them I give them to another artist
who can. 

Born in El Paso, Texas, Henry Vermillion finished high  school and the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque.   He graduated with majors in
biology and English, rather than in art, but has drawn and painted most of his life.    He lived and worked in  Raleigh, North Carolina, where  he was
a long-time president  of the Wake Visual Arts  Association (now Visual Arts  Exchange),
and in 1998 was  awarded the Raleigh Medal of  the Arts.  He teaches drawing in San Miguel. 
As a painter, he says he has learned ("and stolen") from  painters such as  Caravaggio,
Toulouse-Lautrec,  Degas, Schiele and Thomas  Hart Benton.   In 1992, he and his wife Britt Zaist co-founded Galeria  Izamal in downtown
San  Miguel de Allende. 
His paintings and drawings are in  collections and museums in  The U. S., France, England, 
Mexico, and other countries. 

I moved permanently to San Miguel in 2005. In a way, this is return to my roots. I was born in Mexico City and we moved to California when I was three years old. Growing up, I spent summers in Querétaro where my grandparents owned a small hotel in the countryside. I learned to appreciate the culture, beauty and ways of Mexico, and I love the people.If I could use
words to express myself the way I do  with the paint, I'd probably be a writer. I paint whatever strikes me as beautiful and creates a  desire to express that feeling with paint. Consequently, I paint many differents styles; from still life, landscapes, portraits, nudes, and even abstract and modern work..In each instance there is 
something beautiful that captures my imagination, and that's the motivation to create a new painting. Each piece is a conversation with the viewer about the way I see and feel about the subject...

An inveterate traveler, MacQueen has created
sculpture in six countries. Her most recent steel and bronze work is a 34 foot bronze depicting three female figures from different historical eras, for the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in Knoxville, Tennessee, Full of movement, it is the first monument to female athletes. Her passion has been ‘to translate the language of the body into a three-dimensional reality that symbolizes the real essence of movement, expression and human dignity." After earning degrees from the University of California Los Angeles, MacQueen moved to Pietrasanta in Tuscany, a small town that was a cauldron of working artists from all over the world. After seeing McQueen’s work in Beverly Hills, and recognizing her  exceptional knowledge of movement, the legendary Gene Kelly asked that she sculpt him. MacQueen has received many honors and awards...

Fidelio Herrera is a ceramics artist concern with the ever more comon dehumanization in big cities, which have been turned over to the  production of common objects such as teapots,  washbasins, plates, cups and other that are represented by mythical beings filled with irony which, he claims, are aggregations of the spirit that personify emotions and states of being common to all, providing them with an ambient of ordinariness, or naturalness so profound that when we encounter them, it appears that they have always
been with us. The sculpture of Fidelio is omewhat
more complex and introspective. We frequently see the artist portrayed in narratives and timeless pieces with greate interior force, using archichitectonic textures smoothed by those generated by the spontaneity and slight permanence bestowed by the clay, a technique
that he considers appropriate to express...

David Leonardo was born in Mexico City in 1963 to an artistic family that had a powerful influence
on his future as a professional painter.   He studied at both San Carlos University and La Esmeralda University under a variety of influential teachers. In 1986, he began working with muralist Arnold Belkin, a student of Siqueiros, at the National Fine Arts School in Xochimilco.  The following year he was invited to work on the murals of Arnold Belkin and Vlady in Nicaragua during the cultural exchange agreement between Mexico and the Sandinista Liberation Front National government. 
There he painted a mural entitled “Nicaragua-Nicaragûita”. That international experience greatly influenced his development as a muralist painter, as well as his career as a full time artist. 
In all he has completed 10 murals.  In San Miguel de Allende one can find the following...

While busy with school, raising a family, and traveling to many wonderful places, I owned an Interior Design firm in Honolulu where for many years we were mostly in the fantasy making business, doing the interiors for model homes, resorts and restaurants. Our jobs  always involved.a greate deal of artwork and color. After years of dabbling with painting classes and fooling around with my friend in her garage to
provide what were essentially color field paintings for my jobs, it was ten years ago in San Miguel that I  became a full time student of painting,
now I paint almost daily.I work in acrylics a modern, fluid, fast, medium. I work with layers of creamy paint, the more better. I like using different mediums to build up the canvas, giving it texture, depth and direction.
Memories of exotic and moving places, current events or the role of women and their...

This page is the author's signature to the work done with this interesting group of artists