Jorge Wilmot

Happy Birthday Jorge Wilmot!

Born in 1928, in Monterrey, Nuevo Leon, Jorge Wilmot is considered one of the premier ceramicist of Mexico, credited with "bringing high fired stoneware to Mexico". He studied art, first at the Academy of San Carlos, then in Europe in Paris, Sweden and Switzerland. Wilmot was responsible for establishing a ceramic school in Tonala, fostering high fire techniques and also founded Museo de Nacional de la Ceramics in Tonala. He worked to modernize ceramics, keeping the Mexican motifs intact but also blending the styles from other cultures as well as glaze techniques, for instance Chinese celadon and blue shades.

His own work is a combination of Mexican florals, birds, two headed eagles, lions and suns but emphasizing simplicity in a Chinese style, rather than the more Mexican Baroque style.

Wilmot's influence can be observed all over Mexico in the ceramics now being produced.

Lucia Maya

Happy Birthday Lucia Maya!

The Surrealist painter Lucia Maya was born in 1953, on Santa Catalina Island, California. She and her family relocated to San Pedro, Tlaquepaque, Jalisco, Mexico when she was 4 years old. She studied at the University Guadalajara and then in Madrid, Spain. She was married to Gutierre Aceves Pina, art history professor, in 1978, until their divorce in 1993.

Lucia Maya is a painter, sculptor and lithographer. She works in the Surrealist style. Her work has shown in the US, Puerto Rico as well as Mexico. She lives and works in Guadalajara.

Julia Lopez

Happy Birthday Julia Lopez!

Born in a tiny fishing village in the Costa Chica region of Guerrero, Julia Lopez left the quietude for Acapulco and Mexico City. After being hired for modeling at La Esmeralda, she became acquainted with artists and became a self-taught artist. She practiced on scraps of paper, eventually showing them to fellow artists and slowly became "known".


Her paintings stem from her humble upbringing and roots, even though Julia lives and works in Mexico City.  The indigenous quality of her figures with brightly colored dress and flowers with fruit are quite endearing. Her paintings have been described as depicting paradise in contrast to Frida Kahlo's tragedic works. She has shown in Mexico, the US and Europe. 

Geles Cabrera

Happy Birthday Geles Cabrera!

Born on August 2, 1929, in Mexico City, Geles Cabrera was a Mexican sculptor. From an artistic background; two of her aunts were artists and her father owned a paper mache (art nouveau style) decoration factory; she studied dance and visual art. After a brief time in Cuba with her family, she returned to go to school at La Esmeralda.

She has had many solo as well as collective exhibits and won several awards, including being an inductee of Salon de la Plastica Mexicana. In addition to creating her own art, Cabrera taught art for 37 years. She has maintained a free museum for over forty years, Museo Escultorio Geles Cabrera, the first in North or South America, dedicated to sculpture. One motto that I love is the "Please Touch" directive in place at the museum...and lots of classes take advantage of coming to experience the museum.

The sculpture of Geles Cabrera primarily focuses on the female figure created in stylized forms. Her forms suggest various emotions: love, loneliness and motherhood, and are created in clay, stone, metal and even newspaper.

Rosa Lie Johansson

Happy Birthday Rosa Lie Johansson!

Born in Sweden (I can find no record of the date) this painter relocated to Mexico in 1951. Before moving to Mexico, Johansson studied in Sweden, Italy and New York. In Mexico, she first lived in San Miguel Allende, moving around, learning about the culture, before finally settling in Colonia Anzures, a Swedish community in the capital, Mexico City. It is said that she eventually identified as "Mexicana" dressing in the traditional manner especially inherent in the Mayan culture.

Known for her compositional planning, her works are on canvas as well as amate (a traditional paper). The influence of Cubism is apparent with some figurative aspects interjected. Her own culture comes through with Nordic icons and designs appearing in her work.  Johansson has had her work exhibited all over the world and was inducted into the Salon de la Plastica Mexicana, in 1962.

Paula Lazos

Happy Birthday Paula Lazos!

Born in Cuernavaca on June 30, 1940, Paula Lazos was a painter, torn between a career in dance or art, decided on art. She earned a degree in art education from Universidad Autonoma del Estado Morelos. She was married to painter Rafael Mazon and they had one son. Lazos founded the Instituto Regional de Bellas  Artes of Cuernavaca where she went on to teach youngsters.

Her work had been displayed in North and South America.   She has received various recognitions including induction into the Salon de la Plasticas Mexicana.

Unfortunately I have not been able to find a picture of one of her works!

Arturo Estrada Hernandez

Happy Birthday Arturo Estrada Hernandez!

The painter and student of Frida Kahlo, Arturo Estrada Hernandez, was born on July 30, 1925. in Michoacan. Interested in art at an early age, Hernandez enrolled at La Esmeralda at age 17.
In 1943, Estrada became one of four students privately tutored by Frida Kahlo, and began painting murals. Although he has also painted canvases, he is best known for his murals.

He became a professor in 1948, then the director of his old alma mater La Esmeralda in the early 1980s. He has murals all over Mexico and  paintings in various collections across the world. His work is self described as "a mixture of the popular as well as the hidden". His murals are traditional Mexican folklore, country scenes, flowers and fruit, painted with bright colors.