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by Marianne Carlson (Founder and Coordinator of Feria Maestros del Arte

In 2007, the 7th Annual Maestros del Arte folk and indigenous art show hosted 60 artists from all corners of Mexico.

The Feria was started to help Mexican artists in bringing their work to the public’s attention. Why? Because Mexican folk art is dying. Many art forms have already died, in part because of the lack of education as to why it is important to support folk and indigenous artists. Art is part of Mexico’s history and Feria Maestros del Arte does not want the next generation to see its art only in history books because artists have had to quit making art to find work that puts food on their tables.

There is no other country in the world with the variety of art produced in Mexico. Mexicans are ingenious people, and Mexico has to be the mother country of recycling – everything gets used. Old newspapers, cardboard, plastic pop bottles, grain bags, wood, water garafons - anything is fair game if it’s in the trash. These are the tools used by the students at Centro de Intregracion Tapalpa AC (CITAC).

CITAC began through the vision of retired teachers Patricia and Pepe Villalever of Guadalajara. They created a model school in the mountain town of Tapalpa, Jalisco, where children, teenagers and adults in need of special assistance are worked with. Each student has some form of difficulty interacting with their environment – some have problems in school, some have strayed onto the wrong path, some are handicapped or suffer impairments. CITAC helps to integrate them back into their social, economic, and cultural backgrounds. But the school doesn’t stop here – parents and families are worked with as well to enable them to understand the student’s problems and support their continuing growth and development.

CITAC works to maximize each child’s artistic, creative, and academic potential by teaching them the art of paper maché (at the school called papel malecho). The resourceful maestro teaches his students about his world of many suns - each sun is a different color and represents one of life’s best attributes – honesty, creativity, love, compassion, hope, etc. Marco helps them to create pollo con tenies (chicken with tennis shoes), media vacas (half cows), long sausage-like horses, pop-bottle flowers (made from the bottom of plastic pop bottles), and on and on.

Each art piece is made from recycled garbage; modeled and brightly painted 100% by hand using the technique called floripintura. Students are stirred to create fanciful works of art inspired by their beliefs and customs, each artist developing a strong commitment to ecology through seeing how recycling can help transform their hopes and desires into art that other people might want to buy.

Through the years, various organizations from the US, Canada, and Mexico have contributed computers, supplies and other school requisites, and in 2004, a brand new school on the outskirts of Tapala was dedicated, paid for in great part by the paper maché sales of the students’ work.

For information contact Marianne Carlson at (01152 from outside Mexico) 376 765-7485 or email mariannecarlson@gmail.com

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