Entry #11

Friday, November 4, 2005 to Sunday November 6, 2005

Friday:
Fabrica La Aurora, a converted factory, is a new space for artists, artisans, and merchants of antiques and home furnishings. Tonight, starting at 5pm, there was a complex wide opening for Dia De Muertos with "cocktel, altares, musica" . Every gallery staged an altar in the middle of its showcased art. There were painters, sculptors, fabric artists, silversmiths, furniture artisans --all fine arts were included. I met some friends there and we explored at least twenty galleries, getting lost once or twice in the maze of corridors. But we didn't mind. The refreshments were excellent and every gallery was a treat for the senses. I know I saw perhaps half of La Fabrica, so I plan to return before I leave San Miguel in December.

Next we took a taxi to the Museo Historico de San Miguel de Allende at the Jardin for the opening "Encounters"--- the paintings of two artists Stefanie Graves and David Lucht. Check out their work at http://www.cowango.com/
We walked a few streets over to Bellas Artes, which is the oldest fine arts school in San Miguel. In their Sala de Alumnos there was the Opening for "Ceramics" by Ana Rivera.

Saturday,
Today, the "Adventure Tour" run by Lucha and El Centro de Crecimiento went to the studio of internationally recognized glass artist Ana Thiel.
http://www.travergallery.com/artists/at_main.html She showed us her large studio, a former chicken coop, explaining the process of working with glass. She collects wire, rusted pieces of metal, things we might see as garbage, to use in her sculptures. At the moment she is completing a "column" composed of segments that look like vertebrae, each with materials of natural or man-made embedded in them. You can see it piled on a table behind her in the photograph. She showed us her home gallery and then offered us cookies made with pecans from her garden and a drink made from hibiscus flowers. She bakes, she said, as therapy. She was a most gracious host. This studio tour has been a highlight of my stay here.

Lucha then took us to a mansion in Atascadero-- a neighborhood like Westmount, high on a hill overlooking Centro San Miguel. The home belongs to the Cardenas family who visit from Mexico City only on long weekends and holidays.

At 3pm I had an invitation to attend the birthday party for Therese H., the owner of the apartment I am renting. It was a wonderful party and I met many interesting people there, including artists whose work I had seen in San Miguel galleries.

The final event this evening was a Gypsy Jazz show at Finnigan's restaurant near the Instituto. It reminded me a bit of Calexico.

Sunday
When I went next door to thank Jim & Therese for the wonderful time I had at their party, they invited me in and we chatted for an hour. Then they served me a lunch of the same delicious chiles poblano rellanos covered in yoghurt and garnished with pomegranate seeds that were yesterday's main course. This is a recipe to acquire and perfect. Therese said it was labor intensive but the work is worth it---an outstanding meal hot or cold!

At 5pm the San Miguel Actors Lab was presenting its final reading of "Couples....Till Death Do Us Part" at the Biblioteca. The show was composed of scenes from six famous Broadway plays:
Dylan Goes to America, The Odd Couple, Waltz of the Toreadors, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, Prisoner of 2nd Avenue, and Blithe Spirit. Most were humorous scenes, but there was enough emotional range to make the evening meaningful.