This new year is off to a wonderful start! I was recently invited to participate in the Istanbul Concept Art Show 2012. This year’s theme is “The Taste of Love,” and the show will take place in Istanbul from mid-February. For this show I made a new ceramic piece, handmade, porcelain with silver leaf applied. This new piece was pit fired and measures 5.1 x 1.5 x 4 inches. It will be exhibited with this weathered seashell and silk scarf on which I wrote the following poem:

The taste of Love        

Like shimmering moonlight

Trough a winter sky

    An open hand

        An honest smile

Flowing from the heart

        Like petals

Of marigold and roses

Sweet and bitter

On the lips to taste

The sea

Like a heart in constant motion

And the taste of tears

Just here

Touching the earth

And slowly appearing

With remembrances

Of you and me

Irma Vega Bijou    

Santa Barbara. CA.USA.         January 2012

Every year I spend a good portion of September and pretty much all of the month of October building altars and preparing presentations for the Day of the Dead. This past October I made a presentation about the Day of the Dead celebrations for the students in the Fine Arts Department at Westmont College. Although I spoke generally about the various rituals and traditions that honor ancestors in Latin America and other cultures, I focused more on how the Day of the Dead is celebrated in my native Mexico. Following my presentation, I invited the students to create their own altars as part of their classroom activities.

I made a similar presentation to elementary students at the Notre Dame School in Santa Barbara where I set up an exhibit of a small altar and also read books with Day of the Dead themes to the children.

Finally, at the beginning of November, the Santa Barbara Adelante School invited me to set up an altar at the historic Casa de la Guerra Museum. This event was part of a larger community effort to celebrate the occasion and also to raise awareness of this beautiful ritual. I think this community effort was fabulous! The arts and crafts made for this Mexican ritual were outstanding as was the food, and the dance and musical groups that performed at this event.

Below are just a few photos from my presentations.

Last September I went to Turkey to share and teach firing ceramics in an alternative or “pit firing’ way, with sawdust and organic materials. My journey began in Bursa, where I worked with my friends at the Pandora Ceramic Studio, then in Istanbul, with a group of women, all members of the Sakariyakoy Artists Group. It was very interesting to find that this natural and ancient way of firing ceramics is something that  is present in most ancient civilizations, including the ones present in those areas. So we felt like we were reliving the memory of those ways of firing ceramics.

This year so far has been a busy and very fulfilling one. Among the various projects I’ve recently completed are a pair of tile mounds in my garden. The two mounds, “Contemplation” and “Stargazer” are covered with my own hand-painted tiles as well as found materials such as mirror pieces and glass pebbles. These garden sculptures are a nice place to sit and meditate or to simply relax and enjoy the garden, and they also represent my ongoing commitment to repurposing found materials into art. They will soon be featured in a short video about my garden sculptures that will be produced by the same team that filmed my “Day of the Dead” video (see the November 2010 entry below).

 

Left: Contemplation and Stargazer in my garden. Center: Contemplation, 5x6x7.1 ft. Right: Stargazer, 5x5x2 ft.

From May through June of 2011 I participated in a very interesting and unusual invitational group show, “Art of the Cage Doll.” The show was held at the Indigo Gallery in Santa Barbara. I made these two dolls from mixed media including clay, paper, wood, metal and paints. They each measure approximately 21 x 8 inches.

In September I returned to South Korea, this time to Ulsan to attend the Onggi Expo as a Guest Foreign Master Potter, and as the only woman in this group. It was humbling and exciting to work alongside some of Korea’s great potters, all of whom I consider to be among the best in the world. The Expo was also a great opportunity to meet other ceramic artists from around the world as well as potters from various regions of South Korea. Since my previous visit to South Korea in 2009 the Korean people and culture have held an important place in my heart, so it was wonderful to reconnect with old friends and start new friendships, too.

In addition to working alongside the masters and working in Onggi Clay (a clay unique to South Korea used to build kimchi pots and other items), I also gave a lecture entitled “American Earthenware – A Western Point of View” about the development of earthenware in the United States, especially from the Southwest and Western regions of the U.S.

Also, while at the Expo, I exhibited several earthenware burnished pieces and a gold leaf tile that I imprinted with a fig leaf (photo to the left). These items were exhibited at the Onggi Gallery as part of the Invitation Exhibition.

Every year I build altars to celebrate the Day of the Dead. This year I had several occasions to show my own hand-built altars and tell people about this wonderful Latin American tradition that honors the spirits of the deceased.

At the Casa Dolores, Center for the Study of the Popular Arts of Mexico here in Santa Barbara, I was invited as a guest artist to discuss the Day of the Dead celebrations. For this occasion I created a special altar dedicated to the Saint Patrick Battalion, a courageous unit comprised of several hundred immigrants, mostly Irish, who fought in the Mexico-U.S. War (1846-1848).

I also gave presentations at local schools and at Santa Barbara City College.  For these presentations – which I’ve done several years in a row – I usually bring a portable altar and related items (all handmade by me), and tell stories to help audiences understand the origins and rituals associated with this celebration. I really enjoy giving these presentations to students because many have never heard of Day of the Dead, but they always show a keen interest in finding out more about it. And because of my own fascination with how other cultures honor the spirits of the dead, this year I talked a lot about similar rituals and celebrations in Japan, South Korea and China.

In addition to the lectures and presentations I gave locally, I also put together my own home altar, which this year included a handmade sculpture honoring Niki de Saint-Phalle; and several pieces covered in Persian Blue glaze for our friend Azin Naimi, who came to the U.S. from Iran and shared with us her love for art and her many other beautiful qualities. There were also several items on my home altar by my friend Jess McVey, a Bay Area artist who was a very inspirational person in my life.

To mark 25 years of making Day of the Dead altars, filmmaker Ann Dahlgreen directed, produced and edited a video featuring me and my altars. Now all of my friends, from Mexico, the U.S. and other parts of the world can see my work! The music in the video was composed by David West.

As 2010 comes to an end, I feel like I’ve experienced many wonderful surprises. I am looking forward to 2011, with the promises of trips related to work, many new projects and staying in touch with the people I know from around the world. Life has shown me that we are all connected, and with some effort, we always have something good to share.

Summer is officially here and as always, I have been busy working on new ceramic projects, including a tile-covered mound, one of two new sculptural garden pieces. And for more on what I have been doing in recent months, please read my other updates below.

Last year, English teacher and poet laureate David Starkey saw an altar I exhibited at the Santa Barbara City College 20th Anniversary of the Days of the Dead (please read about the SBCC event below in “October 2009”). Apparently, he was quite intrigued that a ceramic artist built the altar, made the paper cutouts, sugar skulls and other items on display. So after visiting my website, he contacted me and asked if he could interview me for Santa Barbara TV at my studio. The interview aired on the network’s “Creative Community” show in February.

David and his crew arrived just in time to see my latest work, a new blue-green bench covered with more than 350 handmade and hand-painted tiles I worked on during the winter months, which is now ready to enjoy as we move into summer!

I was invited to participate as a guest artist in Santa Barbara City College’s 20th anniversary of the Days of the Dead. For this special occasion,  I displayed an altar and gave lectures about the celebration to students and teachers in the foreign languages department. In my lectures, I talked about rituals for honoring the deceased in Mexico as well as in other cultures such as Japan’s O-bon festival, the Hungry Ghosts festival in China, Dia de Muertos y Ancestros in Bolivia and Chuseok in South Korea.

In my altar display I included paper and cardboard items such as fake money, a car, even a paper laptop (!) and new clothing, items which are presented and burned in a Chinese ritual to ensure ancestors have proper items for the afterlife. I found most of these lovely paper items in Chinatown, Los Angeles. I also painted a replica of a portable altar, used only in Korea, to worship ancestors and painted a hanging scroll, called Kammoyoche-do, depicting an ancestral shrine.

Every culture has unique ways to honor its ancestors, and many have special funerary vessels made of clay or porcelain or other symbolic materials. In the U.S., for example, the Pomo Indians often throw fine hand-woven baskets into fires as part of the Feasts of the Dead ceremonies. Although I specialize in the Mexican way of celebrating the Day of the Dead, I am fascinated by the ways in which other cultures honor the spirits of those who have passed away, and there are certainly many.

Every year I set up an altar at home to honor friends and relatives who have passed away. This year, we set up a special altar to honor all men and women who took their own lives as a result of the impact of the war.

We also honored the spirits of dear friends and artists such as John Norton, Otto Heino, Sam Maloof, Haane Sonquist and Susan Peterson, who are no longer with us but whose great spirits and creative gifts we continue to enjoy.

Our home altar has always been a communal effort to pay respect to loved ones and we always welcome our friends’ participation in this important and beautiful event.

Below are some photos from my displays and my home altars.