PART II -FOUR MORE ARTISTS

A REVIEW

These next four artists are from the series of 12 published last year on Notes. Next week we will post the last four as Part lll in the series.

Robin Wall Kimmerer, - teacher, writer/author, scientist, plant educator, mother.

“Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants.”

https://www.amazon.com/Sweetgrass-Indigenous-Scientific-Knowledge-Teachings/dp/014199195X/ref=asc_df_014199195X?mcid=ab06055cbc373650ace3c4fe40ca53b0&hvocijid=1459833494791848428-014199195X-&hvexpln=73&tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=721245378154&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=1459833494791848428&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030783&hvtargid=pla-2281435177658&psc=1

And Robin’s most recent book: https://www.amazon.com/Serviceberry-Abundance-Reciprocity-Natural-World/dp/1668072246/ref=pd_rhf_se_s_pd_sbs_rvi_d_sccl_2_3/131-2609958-6621516?pd_rd_w=L0dTF&content-id=amzn1.sym.46e2be74-be72-4d3f-86e1-1de279690c4e&pf_rd_p=46e2be74-be72-4d3f-86e1-1de279690c4e&pf_rd_r=6AD0Y0N9WGB8KAA1H0XV&pd_rd_wg=NIDOY&pd_rd_r=7c54f853-128b-49bd-b526-f56f704449cb&pd_rd_i=1668072246&psc=1

“Sustain the ones who sustain you and the earth will last forever. This is really why I made my daughters learn to garden—so they would always have a mother to love them, long after I am gone.”

https://www.robinwallkimmerer.com/about

Gillian Lynne. As a little girl she was told by her school that she had a problem and that her mother should take her to a doctor. The school said she couldn’t sit still and was bothering other children in the class..

The mother took the girl to the doctor, a specialist. The doctor listened to the mother’s story, and then said to the girl, “I need to talk to your mother in private for a few moments “

As they stepped out of the room, the doctor reached over and switched on the radio. When the doctor and the mother went outside the room they peered in and the young girl got up out of her chair and began to dance. The doctor said, “Mrs. Lynne, your daughter isn’t sick, she is a dancer, Take her to a dancing school.” And the mother did exactly that.

Gillian Lynne went on to become a member of The Royal Ballet and started her own dance company. She worked with Andrew Lloyd Weber and choreographed musicals such as “Cats” and “The Phantom of the Opera.

Thanks to the late Ken Robinson for the story with a touch of humor and truth.

José Guadalupe Posada (b. Aguascalientes, Mexico, 1852; d. Mexico City, 1913), a tireless producer of caricatures and satirical imagery for the penny press that were one of the most popular forms of media in his homeland, has been widely recognized as”the foremost caricaturist, the foremost graphic artist for more than 125 years. Posada built his career in an era of political repression and lived to see the profound social changes brought by the Mexican Revolution of 1910. There were many revolutions before Mexico gained its full and complete independence.

Posada’s pictorial contributions to broadsides, or ephemeral news sheets, provided a daily diet of information and entertainment to a public for whom images needed to tell the story since literacy was not widely prevalent during the late nineteenth century. Posada’s highly varied images in the popular press included noticias illustrating lurid crimes, current scandals, and other sensational stories, but these constitute only a part of his extensive output. Reused and reprinted, sometimes until the printing blocks and plates wore out, his beloved illustrations also encompass religious subjects, ballads, and children’s books and games.

Posada is best known for his sheets of calaveras (skeletons), which figured in popular rituals around the Mexican celebration of the Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), but were also adapted into satires of political figures and other individuals. Whether playful or trenchant, vernacular or surreal, Posada’s imagery continues to delight, and it still inspires the work of many illustrators working today.

Ben Ortega, (1923-1998)

Born in Tesuque, New Mexico, Ortega lived there all his life, except for the three years he spent serving with the 240th Combat Engineers in World War II. Upon returning home, he learned cabinet making and machine shop in Santa Fe for two years, and then planned to go to California with some classmates, to find work. Around this time he began carving in wood, as he had done from childhood, small religious figures, a Saint Francis, and a Madonna. Both sold immediately at a benefit sale for the Santa Fe Opera, and an artist was born. Commissions followed, and Ortega is now known for a signature carving style which emphasizes the natural grain of the wood in graceful lines and delicate features, reflecting the strong spiritual foundations of his faith. The Cathedral Basilica of St. Francis of Assisi is the historic church of importance in Santa Fe. Ben was proclaimed a living treasure in 1976 and earned a life time achievement award in 1996 for his Santeros and wood carvings. He was a generous artist, donating much of his work to churches throughout the Southwest and to different organizations. Ben’s 4’4” St. Francis carving below now stands in the corner of our larger living room and gallery, blessing all who enter and leave.