Day 4, in which we visit many things that Rudolfo Morelos loved

Day 4 (which was actu­ally yes­ter­day) we went to Ocot­lan. Birth­place of the painter Rudolfo Morelos.

But before we got out of town I saw this set of signs and thought you all needed to see them as well.

Ocot­lan is south of the city of Oax­aca. The biggest build­ing in town is the church. Unlike many colo­nial era churches in Mex­ico, the church in Ocot­lan has been restored to the way it looked in the 1880s. Much later than the usual 16th cen­tury. A lot of build­ings in Ocot­lan use the same blue, white, ocher, and black color scheme.

Inside the church is white, gold, and black. It’s much brighter than many of the churches. This is the main chancel.

While we were in the church I could hear a bird singing. It was a tough to locate the source. I was sure it was in the church but couldn’t find it until I real­ized that there the upper por­tion of the wall between the main chan­cel on the rosary chapel was open. I found this lit­tle guy perched on an angel’s wing.

The chapel has a col­lec­tion of obscure saints in the spaces between the vaults.

This is a close up of one of the geo­met­ric designs that lines the chapel.

it wouldn’t be a church if there wasn’t a shrine to El Nino.

Next to the church is the clois­ter. Which before it was turned into a museum for some of the More­los col­lec­tion was the local jail. This is what you would have seen if you were spend­ing your days in the jail­house courtyard.

Among the pieces in the museum are these exam­ples of sculp­ture by the Jose­fina Aguilar and her family.

This devil sits jaun­tily on the dis­play case.

One of Josefina’s sis­ters makes these hys­ter­i­cal hook­ers. This one is wear­ing m0re clothes than most.

This is the whole his­tory of the world. Or at least the part that we keep repeating.

The museum also con­tains a num­ber of More­los’ paint­ings but the rooms are too dim to see them decently, let alone pho­to­graph the installation.

A cou­ple of blocks from the church — across the Zocolo — is Rudolfo More­los’ house. This is the view of the gar­dens at the cnter of the house.

This walk­way leads from the stairs across the top of the porch to More­los’ studio.

I get stu­dio envy every time I come up here. This long sky-lit room now houses some of his lithographs.

Dial­ogo espera.

The house is full of lit­tle sur­prises. You can only see this fel­low if you turn around and look back­wards from the stu­dio door.

There were birds singing in More­los’ house.

Another fan­tas­ti­cal beast.

A lit­tle fur­ther down the street we went to the home of Jose­fina Aguilar. She demon­strated how she builds her sculptures.

She has the most amaz­ing hands. Most of her work is done by feel.

It took her a lit­tle over 20 min­utes to cre­ate this sculp­ture of a mar­ket women car­ry­ing calla lilies and marigolds — the tra­di­tional day of the dead flow­ers. I don’t know how the lit­tle dog fig­ures into it.

Josefina’s son Demitrio is also a tal­ented painter. I bought this gem from him.

ObMoto. This mechanic’s shop was right next door to the Aguilar’s.

Jim found this inside. But there was no-one around to ask about it.

Our last stop for the day was St. Mar­tin Tilca­jete. We went to see two fam­i­lies of wood carvers.

Here are two masks carved by Isadora Cruz, one of the old men of wood carv­ing in the valley.

Crafts in Oax­aca are fam­ily busi­nesses. This is Isadora’s daugh­ter Rosa hold­ing a half fin­ished Dia de Muer­tos mask.

There’s not a lot of straight tim­ber left in the valley.

Leav­ing town we had to give way for this gen­tle­man and his field workers.

Tagged as: churches, josefina aguilar, ocotolan, pottery, Rudolfo Morelos, sculpture, wood carving