Living Art PDF Download

Author: Kerin Gould
Publisher: Museum of International Folk Art
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
Nestled in the steep, sloping hills of the Sierra Madre, just north of Puebla, Mexico, lies the remote Otomí village of San Pablito. With limited farming opportunities here, many villagers rely on traditional crafts for income. Women create whimsical embroidery and beadwork arts inspired by Otomí legends and the region's rich plant and animal life. Men carve benches in the shapes of horses, armadillos, and burros. Sounds of artisans pounding bark into sheets of thin, flat paper, or Amate, echo throughout the valley below. The Otomí crafts also serve traditional ceremonial purposes. Amate, for example, is carefully cut into mythological figures that curanderos (healers) use for curing ceremonies, and figures of seed spirits made from colorful tissue paper are used to encourage healthy crops. Despite the outside pressures of commercialism, the remarkable designs created by the villagers embody a rich cultural heritage that has been preserved for centuries. As one artisan explains, "This is the work our ancestors gave us." In Living Art: Designs and Crafts of the Otomí of San Pablito, sixty Otomí artworks from the collections of the Museum of International Folk Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico, are reproduced along with photographs of the town and community. The text by Kerin Gould-who lived and worked in the community for two years and continues to visit regularly-explores the history and origins of the Otomí culture, examining the legends and ceremonial practices that inspire the intricate designs of their modern-day creations. The foreword by curator Barbara Mauldin provides an overview of the many crafts unique to the Otomí of San Pablito.