Mexicali Inspired

Sometimes one image sends you into a creative stream and you're off.  Sometimes you're in an emotional place and one image echoes the feeling.

I was feeling rather tender-hearted and decided to 'work it through' in a collage.  I began with a simple Google search on 'heart'. When the powerful images of the arrow-through-the-heart Mexican Loteria cards showed up, I knew I found the right symbolism.

I've always loved the Loteria images and collected several sets while in Mexico and many more images on-line..  Loteria is a bingo-type game using images, but I've noticed some people are using the images for a Tarot-type reading and creating interpretations, such as in this blog, The Quest. There is, of course, an overview of the game Loteria, at Wikipedia.  I also liked this piece from MOLAA, the Museum of Latin American Art, in Long Beach, CA.

I was drawn to El Corazon, the heart, because it was powerful.  Interestingly, today while writing this blog, I learned that one version of El Corazon, means that although you are missing the beloved, they will return.  So the image of pain is embedded with hope for renewal.

El Corazon

I found another powerful image in my google-quest, a wonderful Loteria tattoo.  It features one of my favorite cards, El Sirena, a mermaid.  So she inspired the next card in the stream.

Blind Loteria

Then I was scanning through my own collection of Mexican images and looked into my Frida Kahlo file.  And so the stream ebbed with this Frida with Frida collage.

Frida Con Frida

MARWENCOL! Soul Saving Art

Some years ago I learned about Marwencol and I'm posting today because a wonderful photo art book is now available for pre-order.  When I discovered Marwencol, an earlier book on Mark and his work was out of print and I was so taken with the world of Marwencol that I had created my own photo book of Marwencol.

On April 8, 2000, Mark Hogancamp was attacked by five men and left for dead outside of a bar in Kingston, NY. After nine days in a coma, he awoke to find he had no memory of his previous adult life. He had to relearn how to eat, walk and write.

When his state-sponsored rehabilitative therapies ran out, Mark took his recovery into his own hands. In his backyard, he created a new world entirely within his control - a 1:6 scale World War II town he named Marwencol. Using doll alter-egos of his friends and family, his attackers and himself, Mark enacted epic battles and recreated memories, which he captured in strikingly realistic photographs. Those photos eventually caught the eye of the art world, which lead to a series of gallery exhibitions, an award-winning documentary, a book, and a new identity for a man once ridiculed for playing with dolls.

There is also a wonderful documentary about Marwencol and Mark

And now you can preorder "Welcome to Marwencol"-   a 278-page hardcover art + storybook about Mark Hogancamp and his imaginary World War II—era town of Marwencol.  The book features nearly 600 full-color images by Mark Hogancamp and covers Mark's story, an inside look at his town and process, and eight photo stories. Published by Princeton Architectural Press, the book is now available for pre-order here and wherever books are sold. I've ordered my copy!  And don't forget to check out the special Mark-designed t-shirt from the Marwencol bar, the Catfight Club.

  

Like Mark on Facebook too  What's not to like!