Wood Carvers of the Oaxacan Region
The village of Arrozola is one of the wood carving villages of the Oaxacan region . Jane took us to visit Arsenio Moreles who, as a demonstration of how to do it, took a machete to a block of freshly cut wood and created one of his signature long eared rabbits. We then watched his wife painting rabbits.
One of the interesting aspects of life in Arrozola is that walking down the main street of the village
it is possible to walk into the front room of any house and find carvings for sale. In fact, I found a small cow to add to our kitchen herd.
Because it was hot and I am easily bored, Julie and I peeked in the school where Day of the Dead celebrations were underway. The pictures of the children are from the upper and lower schools in the village.
This is a Day of the Dead Altar at the Early School
This was another altar in the Early School
This little boy was so serious
She was shy, but she definitely wanted her picture taken!
These boys couldn't wait to have their picture taken. They were climbing all over each other and being wonderfully silly!The best part was that the teachers at the Early School invited us into the school and let us walk around taking photos of the kids. They were having a grand party and all the little kids had sticky fingers and dirty faces.
More on Carving
Another carver, and one of my favorites is Jesus Sosa Calvo. Actually his family all carves. There are four sons and a daughter (at least that I know of). I have met two of the sons at Jane's Day of the Dead party for Thorny at the cemetery, one of whom works picking apples in Washington 5 months of the year. Another son wants to be a priest and I don't know anything about the last one. The daughter is lovely and she is the person who paints their carvings. The Calvo family is from San Martin Tilcajete, Ocotlan and one of the great things about them is that they often stop by the Casa early in the morning with sample. It is better than online shopping!
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