Muñecas, Nightmare Chasers, Ceremonial Staffs

Muñecas - Figures made of papier-mâché of my own formula. I use the Atencion weekly newspaper here in San Miguel de Allende. The paper has the right amount of color print to produce a stone-like color. I also use plenty of carpenter's glue. Each muneca is then sanded with a Dremel tool for a couple of hours to enhance the stone-like color and texture. Some of the papier-mâché muñecas have boneheads. The bones are the ankle bones of cows and calves. When sawed cross-wise in a certain place there are two marrows - eyes. I discovered these bones while rummaging through a dumping ground at Atotonilco.

Other work in papier-mâché includes Ceremonial Staffs, Walking Sticks, Septers and/or Sprinklers. People ask me, "What kind of ceremony would you use these things for?" My answer: "Any ceremony you like. If you board an airplane with one of my staffs you'll be given any seat you desire."

At present (September 2008) I am working on Bastones magicas, magic sticks, to be hung in my gallery for the Day of the Dead celebration November 1 at Fabrica la Aurora. The sticks are covered with jewels and sparkling metal wheels I found at the Tuesday Market in San Miguel de Allende. In the rural South of my childhood many of the black communities decorated long poles with colorful objects in order to attract good spirits. Spirits, it seems, are attracted to anything bright and shinny. In these backwoods communities the people also hung empty bottles on trees. The bottles trapped the bad spirits before they entered the house. Why don't the good spirits get trapped in the bottles also? This is a question I cannot answer.

Nightmare Chasers - These totemic figures are made of wood. They're about 4 to 5 inches tall, painted with watercolor and gold dust and heavily glazed. The name came to me in a flash. One day a psychiatrist came into my gallery and took an interest in these figures. I think he must have been a Jungian. He asked me what I called them. At that time the figures had no name. I instantly said: "They're Nightmare Chasers, created to chase away your worst dreams and fears." Immediately, the doctor purchased 9 of them for his patients. In Spanish the title is Atrapadores de Pesadillas. The "trappers" of nightmares.

The first 10 photographs were taken by Marshall Dackert. He lives in San Miguel de Allende and shows his paintings in the Zoho Gallery in Fábrica la Aurora. Kelley Vandiver took the last picture. He can also be found at Fábrica la Aurora.