Juarez Mexico Travel Guide
Art Samples - Alebrejes Wood Carvings
No doubt my own personal preferences have come heavily into play here, given the great variety of goods offered in the Ciudad Juarez markets. But I believe you will find very interesting the tale of two forms of distinctively Mexican art, both of which were destined to change forever the lives of the communities which invented them. I've also included a few unrelated items at the end of the article.
The first art form comes from the villages in the southern Mexican state of Oaxaca (wah-HAH-kah). When the world discovered these delightful wood carvings merchants from as far away as Japan began showing up in Oaxaca with huge orders, and soon dozens of families were busy making them and enjoying a prosperity they had never known before. (Although not always, generally the men carve, and the women and children do the painting.) These these brightly colored works are carved primarily from copal wood, which grows in the mountains of the Sierra Madre del Sur. The art form is known as “Alebrijes”, a word which means, basically: “a difficult tangled thing, shaped in confusing or fantastic figures.”
Although other wood such as pine, grapefruit, and cedar is used these days, in all likelihood an Alebrijes sculpture is still made from copal, a gnarly wood which sands to a smooth surface and feels like porcelain to the touch. The wood is very light, and, in this form of sculpture, it is the shape of the wood which dictates what shall be carved from it. A solid piece might suggest a turtle to the artist, whereas a twisted branch might be begging to become a salamander or serpent. Most of the wood carvers come from three small villages outside of the City of Oaxaca and still follow very ancient ways, cherishing their belief in witches and their belief that supernatural forces are at work in our every day lives.
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