Laura Ann Frederick

Happy Birthday Laura Ann Frederick!

Today is my birthday and at my husband's insistence I am posting some info about myself and my art.  I was born in Lawrence, Kansas in the US, the first of five children. I studied art and art education at University of New Mexico in Albuquerque, focusing on ceramics and sculpture. Currently we are splitting time in Page, Az., at Lake Powell and San Pancho, Nayarit in Mexico.

I initially worked in sculpture and ceramics with an emphasis in Japanese porcelain. I taught art in the public school system for 26 years. My worked has evolved toward an interest in textural exploration in mediums including fibers (weaving and handmade paper projects) and super-realistic watercolor.

I love the fine detail of weaving with natural fibers including linen, silk rag, wool. I also work in watercolor, creating paintings of architectural features and minutely detailed florals.

Ruben Ortiz-Torres

Happy Birthday Ruben Ortiz-Torres!

Ruben Ortiz-Torres was born on February 27, 1964, in Mexico City. He is described as a Mexican postmodernist artist involved in photography, printmaking, film and performance. He attempts to explore aesthetic and social cross-cultural exchange and the work creates a complicated look at globalization. He re-works ready-mades, creates films and videos and performance art to get across his message.

Torres has lived and worked in Los Angeles since the 1990's and is currently a professor at University of California San Diego. He is quite well regarded and his work is included in many permanent collections. He has received several grants and awards including the Fulbright Foundation, the US Mexico Fund for Culture, and The Foundation for  Performance Art, among others.

Over the years his work has evolved as his quote "Our identities are fluid and ever-changing" suggests.

Hi n' Lo Rider

Rosalinda Cauich Ramirez

Happy Birthday Rosalinda Cauich Ramirez!


Basketmaker, Rosalinda Cauich Ramirez, was born today in, 1962, in Kopchen, in the southwestern Mexican state of Quintana Roo. She began her work an the early age of ten, after receiving a basket as a gift at age seven. Her father encouraged her and was a help initially in the procurement and preparation of materials. After beginning with a basic design of a round fruit bowl, Ramirez has added over 40 various shapes, styles and designs to her repertoire, expanding to include lamp bases, animal figures, vases, carrying bags, etc. She creates them primarily from a vine called "graupo" of which there are 11 species in her state.

Rosalinda has taught the art to her eight children and her husband. The art sustains them economically. She has won several recognitions, including being named "distinguished woman of Quintana Roo" by the governor of her state.

Octavio Ocampo

Happy Birthday Octavio Ocampo!

The Surrealist painter Octavio Ocampo, was born on February 28, 1943. He was born in Celaya,
Guanajuato to a family of designers. As a youngster he constructed paper mache figures for celebrations, parades, etc. and later he became involved in painting a few murals. He studied painting and sculpture at the National Fine Art Institute.

In addition to painting and sculpture, Ocampo is also involved in acting and dance.
Currently in his work, he superimposes his imaginative images over realistic figures in what he terms a "metamorphic style" creating the illusion of receding and jumping forward. His work requires careful inspection and thought to arrive at the meaning.

Well known celebrities in Mexico as well as the US have commissioned Ocampo to create works. He designed the front and back covers for Cher's Heart of Stone album. The painting I have chosen to include here today is entitled Palm Sunday.

Teodula Romulo

Happy Birthday Teodula Romulo!



Born in Tlaxcala, Mexico, Teodula Romulo is a painter and printmaker. After beginning his study of art at the School of Plastic Arts, he continued schooling in Argentina and then in 1973 he received a scholarship to the Atelier of William Hayter in Paris, France. In addition to his diploma, Romulo won a couple of awards while in France.





His work concentrates on myth and customs and he closely identifies with the artists from Oaxaca in this endeavor; "attempting to capture the essence of a primitive culture" through intuition and imagination. Aside from painting, Romulo also makes lithographs, etchings and mixed media pieces. He has participated in over sixty collective exhibits.

Roberto Donis

Happy Birthday Roberto Donis!

Roberto Donis was actually born on February 26, 1934, in Venado. He began his study of painting at La Esmeralda, at age 16, but dissatisfied with the quality of his instruction, he quit after a failed student protest and turned instead to teaching. Relocating to Michoacan, Donis was devoted to teaching for 3 years or so, then went to Paris to study primarily art history. He returned to Mexico, devoting his time to his own art and saving money to travel to New York City and Washington DC. In the late '70s he participated in several collective exhibitions all over the world.


His style evolved from figurative to Expressionism, finally settling in to Abstract Expressionism. Roberto Donis was honored by his hometown Venado with the Roberto Donis Cultural Center located in an old textile factory. He retired from painting in the 80's and died in 2008.


                                                
  

Jose Luis Cuevas

Happy Birthday Jose Luis Cuevas!

The painter, Jose Luis Cuevas, was actually born on February 26, 1934,  but since I have found three artists born on that date I will write about Cuevas today...He was born and raised above a paper and pencil factory owned by his grandfather, leading him to joke that because of that he was fascinated with paper and drawing at an early age. He has been credited as an early poineer aginst the Mexican Muralist movement and a member of  Generación de la Ruptura.

Although he started his art education early, at age ten, at the National School of Painting and Sculpture "La Esmeralda", he had to stop when he contracted rheumatic fever. He became largely self taught and was focused on macabre scenes of amoral humanity, misery and distorted human figures, perhaps due to his illness and brush with death. He was considered quite vain and is said to have taken a photograph each day beginning in 1955 and still continues to this day!

Cuevas has won several awards, including being declared "honored guest" and receiving the city keys for Monterrey and Tijuana, Mexico. He established a museum for his own work in an historic monastery in the 1980's, the José Luis Cuevas Museum.  He has lived and worked in Mexico City his entire life and plans to live to be one hundred!

Roberto Montenegro

Happy Birthday Roberto Montenegro!

Roberto Montenegro, painter, illustrator and muralist was born today, February 19, 1885, in Guadalajara, Mexico. His cousin was famed poet Amado Nervo. He had four sisters and a brother. The family left Mexico at the start of the Mexican Revolution in 1910, returning ten years later. Lost amongst muralist greats like Diego Rivera, Montenegro focused on illustration and portraiture.

He began his art studies in architecture, in Mexico City, but quickly switched to drawing and history. There he met prominent contacts through his cousin, Amado Nervo. He studied in Paris and traveled in Europe, but returned to live and work in Mexico City. In addition to his art work he also held a few government posts.  His painting below reminds me of Paul Gauguin!

                                                              Majorcan Fisherman