My Artistic Journey…

When I found myself unable to leave Huatulco for six months during the 2020 pandemic, I had the most amazing opportunity to transform the house into a gallery of art that I had always dreamed of. The only concrete idea I had was to learn about the Mayan culture and translate some of that into the house.

Many of the methods and media, I hadn’t ever used before, so it was quite the learning curve. The ideas were coming fast and I needed to figure out how to display them. Some of the pieces required a bit of engineering and others, a new scale and size.

I am forever grateful for the chance to expand my vision & trials/tribulations with different art forms. I hope you will have a chance to come and experience some of my journey.

As of 2024, that effort continues as I find new media to try and areas to play in. Here are some of the projects that have been done in the past 4 years in no particular order. (Click on any image to see it larger)

The first mural I did was of Yumil Kaxob, the God of Agriculture (corn) in the sleeping room dedicated to this Mayan God. The top line is around 8’ high. Done with acrylic paint, only 4 colors were used to give it the illusion that it is carved from stone.

I added a cob of multi-colored maiz next to the bathroom door. Also done in acrylic paint.

This mural on the front car-port doors took a long time as I could only work after 3:00 pm. The doors are made of steel and it was way too hot while the sun was hitting the doors, so I had to wait until they had cooled off. The armadillos are done with acrylic paint, in the Alebrije style, which originated here in the state of Oaxaca.

Rigo, the carpenter, put up a live-edge bar in an unused space on the patio. Rafa, the ironsmith, made the shelf supports and chairs for me, to my design. Rigo also made wooden seats to put on the iron chairs.

Now you can sit here, have a drink, and enjoy the view of the pool even in the rain! A nice place for any smokers, too.

One of my more ambitious projects was inspired by some back-lit onyx walls I had seen in the Grand Mayan resort. There were several large niches above the pool that needed something. Though having a solid wall in each niche was too much, I wanted to use the onyx. So I designed some onyx shapes, silhouetted with Mayan designs in iron frames (made by Rafa.) The stone-mason had me choose the onyx slab to cut the shapes from. They are about an inch thick and very heavy. Thus the iron frames and design had to be engineered to support them.

I love the way they came out!

What do you think?

In the Forest Room, the work is less art and more interior decorating. The mural is wall paper, but I put in the bamboo, and Rigo crafted the wood cap. This is a type of timber bamboo that I split and dried. Also learned very quickly that insecticide had to be applied.

The installation of the bamboo was a lot more complicated than I thought it would be. They are all various widths, even from top to bottom, and not straight at all! The section breaks add to the difficulty in getting them to fit close together. It was a vertical jigsaw puzzle.

There was originally a 3 concrete-vase fountain next to the pool, which I decided was not my style. I had the three vases jack-hammered out and all but the top pipe capped off.

Since it was very close to a side garden, I decided to give Yum Kaax his own statue. This was the first time I had tried to make something, other than a patio, out of concrete.

Note to self: concrete is not clay…

Pool Fountain Wall - Phase 1

When we bought the house, many areas were unfinished. One of these was the fountain above the pool. 5 pipes sticking out that were the fountain heads.

I removed the dirt from the planting area and found some timber bamboo that I planted in pots.

Then painted the “jungle mural” while standing on top of a ladder inside the pool. Spent quite a few months looking for the fountain head figures. And ordered the life-sized panther from China…

Pool Fountain Wall - Phase 2

After having to always repair the paint because of the heat from the sun and water from rains for several years, I decided to replace it with a mosaic.

I drew the design life-sized on paper and pre-cut the pieces of tile. I had to swim across the pool many times to touch up the fit of the tiles and with small buckets of mortar and grout. *Whew*!

Because the stones on the bottom half of the mural were mounted on square-shaped netting, I had to remove all the ones on the edges, mortar the remaining sheets this way and that, then add the stones back in inbetween one by one. That way, I couldn’t see the lines.

This project took over 5 weeks.

One of the things “wrong” with the main house was that there was no bathroom and folks had to go all the way back to their rooms. But there was a large closet in my office. Big enough to be a half-bath (powder room)! I moved the double doors to the hallway, closed up the wall, and viola! (almost) we had a bathroom!

It is dedicated to the Quetzal Bird, whose iridescent green feathers were highly prized by the Mayans and reserved to be used by the elite. Unfortunately, this drove them nearly to extinction. Now they are under environmental pressure from the jungles being destroyed.

I had brought a sink with me from the US, but found this amazing onyx sink carved from a single piece of stone and had to use it instead.

The mosaic was done by yours truly.

Another mosaic I tried my hand at, was more complicated than I first thought it would be. This design is of two armadillos wrapped around a lotus flower. I had a stone mason cut a circle into this marble table, but it was a lot deeper than I was expecting he’d make it.

Another challenge was that the tile selection here was very limited. So decision time! Had to get creative.

The biggest challenge was to make sure that when it was finished, the table surface was flat. The thickness of the various tiles and stones varied widely.

One of the projects “not quite finished” when we bought the house, was that the Moon Room and the Forest Room did not have their own bathrooms. The “art project” became a “general contractor’s project”.

Soooo many issues, but they finally finished and I think they came out very nice! The Moon Room has a sink carved out of granite in the shape of a nautilus shell and the Forest Room has a sink hand carved from a solid piece of striped onyx.

Both have pebble “creeks” in the floor and rain-shower heads.

I found this dead Bullhorn Acacia tree (aka Ant Tree), sans ants, in an empty lot across the street. After thinking about it for a couple of weeks, I decided I wanted to bring it in the house. The symbiotic relationship between this type of acacia (Acacia cornigera) and acacia stinging ants (Pseudomyrmex ferruginea) is quite facinating.

I installed it in the window niche in the dining room and hung abandoned weaver nests and alebrije hummingbirds on it.

In the cases on either side, I put many of the seed pods and other things of nature that I found on my wanderings.

2024 brings a new large project! The pool is about 12-13 years old and the gunite finish was starting to stain and crumble. Rather than try to repair it, I decided to redo the whole thing in tile, which has a longer life.

I was planning to buy some pre-made mosaics and have them installed, but I found that they were very expensive and too small. Even though I swore on my very old bones that I would leave it up to professionals and not put a hand into this project, I ended up making several large mosaics out of glass tiles.

The master bedroom sports a 12’ high depiction of Kukulkan, the feathered serpent of the Mayan culture. The cult of Kukulkan/Quetzalcoatl was the first Mesoamerican religion to transcend the old Classic Period divisions. This cult facilitated communication and peaceful trade among the peoples of many different social and ethnic backgrounds. There are many tales of Kukulkan, but few actual facts.

In my interpretation, I showed the characters of the Mayan calendar in his “body”. The four figures in the center are the characters and colors of the four cardinal directions.

The Mayans associate the eagle with meditative thought. Known for the power of clarity and the clear focus to make way for a higher telepathic state of mind. 

The jaguar was associated with the Lord of the underworld, strength, and leadership.

Ironically, the meaning of the lotus flower is the same in Mayan and most Asian cultures. It symbolizes balance and tranquility.