Creativity Spurt

Crafting and creativity come in spurts for me.  I have tons of beads and shells and things I have collected to use to "make things".  With Pablo painting, me trying to discipline myself certain hours to write as well as relax, and now the holiday season upon us, I decided to break out all my stuff and see what I could come up with. 


On our trip to Honduras last year we found this little clay maker in La Calma, Honduras.  Last year during a creative spurt a couple friends and I painted most of the beads and I made bracelets and keychains using macrame.  This week I sat down to try to replicate one of the wind chimes that Mercedes, the clay kilner, had hanging in her little hut.  This is the result.

The other project I took on was making a mobile.  I used to love to make these mobiles but it has now been years since I have attempted it.  This one below is made from black coral pieces holding sea urchin skeletons and decorated with some painted clay beads from Honduras.  It has a good movement and is hard to show in a photo.  I was hoping to make more of these, but not very many urchin skeletons made it home from Panamá.

Don't Call Him Picasso

When Pablo and I go to the ruins together, I always take my notebook. He takes pad, paper and his congo drum (and his whistles sometimes). We sit on top of a ruin and look out in wonderment, trying to imagine the every day life of the people who once inhabited the site. As I sit there writing for hours, Pablo will draw or play music. He drew some fantastic sketches at Tikal in Guatemala. Those works of art are in pencil. He also designed and painted the full-sized palm tree on the wall of 'the office'. He's got talent! He's got rythym! Who could ask for anything more? Where'd that come from? It could be that an ancient musical era was awakened in the depths of my brain today as I sit here writing and waiting and waiting for photos to upload. Today Carmen is cleaning, Pablo is painting, I am writing, and we have the radio tuned in to what seems to be hits of the 50's (in Mexico!). I digress.

We take lots of photos when we go to the ruins. Pablo printed a copy of this temple at Kabah. His vision of it is with the Ceiba tree coming up through the clouds and leading to EL FIRMAMENTO.

Here's the artist at work, who's decided to use his middle name Francisco on his paintings, so that people don't jokingly call him Pablo Picasso. It is the first thing we all want to say. But he doesn't want that for two reasons. One is he doesn't want to insult Pablo Picasso, and the other is, he might think you are making fun of him. So Francisco Chavez it is!

This is Francisco Chavez' first painting. He sold it within a week.


I remember the first month Pablo and I were together he talked about painting Pakal, one of the most famous kings of Palenque. When he finished his Path to the Firmamento...he started working on Pakal.

And here is the finished Pakal in front of a temple at Palenque.

There are a few weak spots that need honing. He is using old canvas. Frame making is the big issue. (This big band music is getting to me. I am waiting for Benji and Heidi to jitterbug on in here.) We don't have the right wood, tools, or the patience to make the frames quite right. It's a live and learn experience. Aren't they all?

This is a massive painting he is working on, taken from a mural at the ruins of Bonampak.

This is the painting in its ALMOST completed form. Perhaps you note the canvas stretching issue I was talking about. We can fix it! It is a great work of art.

He already has a start on his next project, Chac Mool. I hope I can remember to post a picture of it when it is completed.

I respect a person who can draw. My drawing abilities are very limited. I am a creative person, and I am drawn to other creative people. I think Pablo has a lot of talent here and I encourage him to keep on painting.

Two Cocktails and a Camera

I wonder... how long ago you could get keys made here 24 hours a day? Looks like it's been a while.

This is a typical night time street scene in Mérida. I am not sure why there are sparkles on the hood, and I didn't notice it at the time I took the picture. Just reflection, I imagine. On my walk tonight I decided to take some photos. As you can see, it started out ok.

Tonight I went to my friend's house for cocktails. I first met her over the phone when I was looking for Buster in August 2007. She called me a year later to cat sit for her for a few days. Since then, we have gotten together once every few months for "cocktails" at her place.

I can say she is British, somewhere in my generation, a writer, a reporter actually, a very interesting and eccentric person. We always have two scotch and sodas. No more, no less. One time we went out on her upstairs patio and I got emotional in some rant; my glass flew out of my hands! Straight up it went, and when it came down, the pieces managed to land on the upstairs and downstairs patios, and probably each step in between. Well, that was it for me. I was cut off and I figured I'd never be invited for cocktails again, having flung her last cocktail glass around her house.

But no, we've gotten together since then. I now have to take my own glass, just in case, but we still have just the two cocktails. Today's were hefty ones, not surprising after we both admitted it wasn't the best of days in each of our worlds.

This was the night of the Revolution Day Parade. Pablo took his art to the zócalo. He dropped me off at my girlfriend's house and parked close to el mero-centro. (the heart of the monster) I volunteered to walk to the zocalo, as my friend's house is only 8 blocks away. It would have been impossible for me to park at the hour I would be arriving. So on my way, I saw things I wanted to photograph. I thought I would try another feature on my camera, however, my glasses broke as I was walking and I didn't quite master what I had in mind. And maybe the results will only be funny to me, at this moment, because I am a bit lit on that scotch, but when I saw these pictures I had to laugh, and I had to share them. It's just been one of those days.

So I admit that I was trying a new function on my camera, but I didn't stop to check the photos, I just kept shooting.

Considering I was a little loopy from scotch, I found it funny the way the beer store came out.

But the next thing you know, aliens entered into the pictures.

Luckily I found Pablo.

I actually DO have a few photos from tonight's festivities, which I will post tomorrow. I don't find this all so funny any more. I'm going to go lay down.