Mexico

2nd Annual Art Festival

San Agustin Etla - December 13, 14, 15, 2002

For information on next year's artist registry, or up to date info on this year's Art Festival, contact:

artfestOaxaca@Hotmail.com

First day photos:

From left to right, top pictures: A) Booths containing art from local artists. B) Performance art troupe "Galapagos" with puppets from an Environmental, 'Turtle Island' story. C) Improvisational performance by "Galapagos" troupe.

From left to right, bottom pictures: A) Children are engaged fully with an act about an Crocodile. B) Improvisational act, keeping the children occupied while parents view the art booths. C) Booth of painter, Gilda Solis - working with acrylic paint, oil paint, Gwash, and mixed media on paper and canvas.

The start of the festival was a little ragged around the edges with booths not prepared, electric lines not run and equipment not set up on time, but perhaps that was because of the holiday festivities in the central square on the evening previous, (The Virgin of Guadeloupe). I was told that the place was a mess and had to be cleaned from stem to stern.

The highlight of the afternoon's events for me, was the theatrics of "Galapagos" who poked fun at our lack of response to the environment around us. The "Happy Planet - Sad Planet" theme symbolized with puppets of turtles, a crab, a crocodile and butterfly showed us that we were selling our planet (environmentally) for a sack of lolly pops.

Day three:

Lots of Buyers stayed around for the action held on Sunday evening. Photos framed went from 350 Pesos to about 600 pesos, and paintings (oil or acrylic) on canvas was selling for 1 thousand to 3 thousand pesos. Some artists didn't sell any works and were a little bit disappointed.

I talked with a few of the vendors that thought the whole weekend was a success and are looking forward to next year's festival. Some participants felt that the organizers were over worked and that for next year's festival, there should be more help available (possibly a committee?) and more volunteers to make all the details happen smoothly.

If you have a story or things of interest for the Bulletin Board, drop a line to:

"Editor@ernestartist.org"