Excursion to Armadillo, San Luis Potosi, Mexico

Progress of the Work: 

Looking forward there was no map or goal or hint of what the San Luis Potosi Fountain Project might produce.  It was Public Art, improvement, restoration.....but how might it effect visitors to Parque Tangamanga II or the participating artists?

Looking back, the experience, working with Isaiah Zagar the Philadelphia mosaic muralist and Trish Metzner, inspired participant artists, gave them skills and a new craft to explore their own visions of artistic creation. The Isaiah Zagar seed was planted and we are now seeing an "orchard" grow. 

Multiple mosaic mural projects have sprouted, public and private, business and residential; all bring beauty, some inspire awe and the artists themselves see a palette of opportunity everywhere: To Muralized the Drab.

Some evidence: 

In San Luis Potosi the most public, yet private, is the El Mexico de Frida, restaurant facade inspired by Lolita Campbell. 

In Matehuala, the municipality commissioned Marissa Martinez to create an outdoor stage background for childrens' programs. 

The huge Zacatlan, five stage muralization of the cemetery retaining wall, over 210 yards in length, is nearing completion, a two year project that will deserve international recognition. Twelve artists are converting drab, blank stonewalls into an homage and history of Zacatlan. 

Muralization has spread to Carlsbad, California.  Monica Meir, originally from San Luis Potosi and one of the artist-participants in the Isaiah Zagar Fountain Project brought her new found skill to honor the Monarch butterfly migration and mosaic-muralized a neighborhood concrete block wall in Carlsbad, which was supported by Butterfly Farms, a non-profit. 

Recently Dick Davis spent 3 weeks in Mexico and visited the small, historic, rural town of Armadillo, outside San Luis Potosi, which is scheduled for a plaza retaining wall makeover and will be Marissa Martinez's second commission.   

Here is Dick's photo journal of a day's excursion with brief comments: 

Artists Monica Meir and Marissa Martinez

Market Day: Armadillo

Plaza retaining wall.....the new canvas.

They are building a Wall....and Mexicans are paying for it!  

(Dick could not resist this political irony.) 

 Artists, teacher and organist. Marissa, Ramberto, Monica, Juan Diaz Mesa

En route to sacred Cave

Butterflies Are Free

Butterflies Are Free

“I only ask to be free. The butterflies are free. Mankind will surely not deny to Harold Skimpole what it concedes to the butterflies.”

― Charles Dickens, Bleak House

With the support of Butterfly Farms, Vista, California, Monica Meir and Marissa Martinez led a group of young artists in the creation of the Monarch Migration Wall Mural in Carlsbad, California. 

Marissa, a San Luis Potosi mural artist and Monica met while assisting in the Parque Tangamanga II Project, an international, collaborative effort creating public art and revitalizing public space.  Monica took the idea home to Carlsbad, presented a theme, Monarch Migration, which connects California to Mexico, to a group of local artists and neighbors, who created the mural. 


Marissa, coming from San Luis Potosi, Mexico with her artistic and mosaic skills headed the project.

Monica’s home and Monarch Mural Wall

Queen Bee and the Butterfly

Monica Meir

Monica said, “A neighbor thought we were creating graffiti and protested.”   But when the mural was complete, “People drive by and stop.”   Children and adults are inspired and when they stop and ask about the mural, Monica explains the Monarch migration and the importance of milkweed, which comes in multiple varieties and blooms from June to August, but in California the season can be longer.  “Weed” is not a just word for the beauty of this flowering plant.

Queen Bee and the Butterflies

I had an opportunity to visit Los Angeles and I wanted to extend the trip to see the mural.

Monica invited me to her home and we would visit Tom Merriman at Butterfly Farms with Mavis Ivene, a friend.  

We met at Monica’s and she gave us a quick backyard tour where she grows three varieties of milkweed and nectar plants. Two milkweed varieties were currently blooming; the third looked more like bamboo. “If you plant milkweed the butterflies will find you.”  

Monarchs cannot survive without milkweed; their caterpillars only eat milkweed plants. The nectar plants are for the butterflies, the fourth stage in their metamorphosis.

The Monarch mosaic mural design incorporates the metamorphosis: egg, caterpillar, chrysalis, butterfly and the route of the Monarchs from North America to Mexico

   Backyard Tour               Milkweed, yellow variety    Nectar for the butterfly

 Entrance to Butterfly Farm    Monica - Tom - Mavis      Inside at Butterfly Farm

Love the sign, its questions for students and its corrected spelling of “nowhere.” 

Moral of the story: Plant Milkweed

Oakland Strokes

The Mosaic Wall Project: Phase Four in Progress

Amelia Earhart Project

Zacatlan: Mosaic Murals

Golden Project Award

Photography Lecture and Golden Project Award

Frank Bette Center for the Arts

Alameda, CA.

February 14, 2015

George Olney

The artists’ images will be used in the 2017 Underground Gold Miners Museum calendar.

Photography Lecture and Golden Project Award

Frank Bette Gallery

George with young photographer

Members and guests filled the Frank Bette lecture hall to hear George Olney discuss Street Shooter: Tricks of the Trade.

George provided tips on the challenges of shooting outdoor, street scenes and how to avoid technical flaws.  George suggested, “Interact with the subjects and get up close. You can’t change the lighting,” but by engaging the people George can often move the subject into a photo perfect picture.

George at Bette Gallery

George at the Lecture

George presented a slide show, often photos with flaws to demonstrate the challenges, and suggested ways to meet those challenges.  He outlined, “What editors and picture buyers look for” and spoke about content and how the photographer must think of visual techniques, which will attract an editor’s eye when looking at thousands of images.

At the conclusion of George’s short course on street photography, Margaret Fago, Vice President of Frank Better Center for the Arts, announced the winners the Golden Project Award, which is to fund two plein air artists, a photographer and painter, to visit Alleghany, CA. in the heart of the Sierra Nevada Mountains and Gold Country and capture images of this small, historic mining town during four seasons.

Margaret presented Chris Adamson, photographer with the first award and announced that Mark Monsarrat earned the plein air painter award.  Alternates Sara Kahn, Susie Long, Charles Lucke and Andrea Pook were honored.  Margaret said, “There were 21 contestants,” and the high quality of the submitted work made it very difficult for the judges.