LAURIE BETH ZUCKERMAN TOURS SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE WITH REBECCA BROOKS

On December 10, 2013, Laurie Beth Zuckerman will finally meet her artist friend, Rebecca Brooks in person. Over these past many years, our shared blog posts, facebook remarks, and personal emails have nurtured our relationship in cyberspace and deepened our mutual love and spiritual connection to Mexico and all things Mary. Finally we will come together in real space to share Rebecca's Loving Lupita tour of San Miguel de Allende. We arrive just in time to celebrate the festivals of La Virgen de Guadalupe. I just happen to share a birthday with the Guadalupe on December 12. 

Rebecca has invited me to teach my Memory Nicho Altar workshop in conjunction with her folk art and church tour of the region. Eight of the ten women on the trip will work with me over the course of our ten-day journey to create their own interpretation of a Guadalupe shrine, using a variety of old folk art and painting techniques. I can't wait to meet everyone and begin!!!

Above is a photo of the Guadalupe I took in 2005 on my first trip to San Miguel de Allende. I hope to find many more sweet and inspiring images of the Mother of Mexico to share on my blog. Meanwhile, below is a tiled Guadalupe shrine I encountered in the municipal cemetery in Oaxaca, Mexico during the Guadalupe festival of 2009. Dried up Día de los Muertos flowers are still decorating the shrine.

LAURIE BETH ZUCKERMAN TEACHES MEMORY NICHO ALTAR WORKSHOP IN SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE, MEXICO WITH REBECCA BROOKS

La Virgen de Guadalupe altar,
photo taken in San Miguel de Allende by Rebecca Brooks.

Celebrate the December 12, 1531, miracle of La Virgen de Guadalupe in historic San Miguel de Allende this December 10-19, 2013.  Discover what Our Lady of Guadalupe, the most beloved symbol of Mexico, represents for your personal life, with artist host, Rebecca Brooks on her LOVING LUPITA magical tour of Guadalupe festivals, Christmas posadas, processions, folk artisans, and colonial churches.

Laurie Beth Zuckerman will lead an optional two-day Memory Nicho workshop that will enhance your exploration of La Lupita, and dovetail perfectly with Rebecca's exciting excursions.

Laurie will guide you in creating a wooden shadowbox shrine (in Spanish: nicho) to contain all the symbols that have touched your soul in Mexico, and express your adoration of La Lupita. As the focal figure of your nicho, you will make a reverse-glass painting of the Guadalupe, employing the Medieval style used for painting sacred icons. Laurie will provide all the templates you will need to create your version of a traditional or contemporary image of La Lupita.

Inspired by Laurie's traditional memory jug techniques in her popular MEMORY JUGS BOOK, you will embellish your wooden altar with found-object adornments scavenged in the marketplaces of San Miguel, and from your personal treasure trove at home. Using paints and gilding, the entire surface of your nicho will develop a richly-textured patina, to mimic the antique gilded altars we will visit in San Miguel's famed colonial churches.

Laurie Beth Zuckerman created this nicho shrine
in honor of her mother, using a vintage Mexican shadowbox.
Photo by Laurie Zuckerman

Vintage foil and reverse glass-painting of La Virgen de Guadalupe,
on display in a Oaxacan restaurant. Photo by Laurie Zuckerman

I found this vintage Mexican reverse glass and foil painting 
of the Guadalupe in an antique store in Colorado years ago.
Photo by Laurie Zuckerman 

AND, just to wet your appetite for all things Guadalupe and Mexican, here are just a few of Laurie's photos of the Guadalupe church festival altars in Oaxaca, Mexico.

La Virgen de Guadalupe altar festival under construction by two altaristas
at the Nuestra Señora de las Nieves church in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Photo by Laurie Zuckerman

La Virgen de Guadalupe altar at the Nuestra Señora de las Nieves
church in Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo by Laurie Zuckerman

La Virgen de Guadalupe altar festival in the Basilica church,
 Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo by Laurie Zuckerman

La Virgen de Guadalupe altar festival in Teotitlan del Valle church,
Oaxaca, Mexico. Photo by Laurie Zuckerman

For much more information about this tour and to secure reservations, please contact Rebecca Brooks at her website: http://www.corazon.typepad.com or email her at: recuerda_mi_corazon@yahoo.com

For more information about this workshop, please comment on this post or contact Laurie Beth Zuckerman at this site. lauriebethzuckerman@gmail.com

Read more about the history of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

LAURIE BETH ZUCKERMAN'S EL PANTEON CEMETERY CRYPT FROM GUANAJUATO, MEXICO

Laurie Beth Zuckerman's photo of cemetery crypt, Guanajuato, Mexico

Due to Winter Storm Virgil, I have spent much of my Spring Break holed up at my computer working on photos from my trips to Colonial Mexico during the Day of the Dead, the Christmas Posadas, and other times of the year. I am busy preparing images for the upcoming Día de los Muertos Exhibition at the Longmont Museum and Cultural Center. This will be the third year I am participating in this show full of altars, folk art, and photography. I have had huge altars and enlarged photographs displayed the past two years. This year I am hoping to incorporate both into one large installation. I have been invited to be on the planning committee for this year's exhibition, and the meetings are still to come. I will let you know more as the ideas develop.

Laurie Beth Zuckerman El Panteon Cemetery Crypt, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

Laurie Beth Zuckerman's photo of cemetery niche, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico

LAURIE BETH ZUCKERMAN'S MEMORY JUG WORKSHOP IN BOULDER, CO: JUNE 8-9, 2013 at Susan Wechsler's Studio

Please click on the flyer above to read about Laurie Beth Zuckerman's
June 8-9 Memory Jugs Weekend Workshop in Boulder, Colorado.

Laurie Beth Zuckerman's "Tarnished Angels" Memory Jug Reliquary, 2012,
honors my mother and father.

Laurie Beth Zuckerman's "Tarnished Angels" Memory Jug Reliquary showing all four sides

Laurie Beth Zuckerman will lead a second two-day weekend workshop at the mosaic studio of Susan Wechsler in Boulder, Colorado, June 8-9, 2013. This is a special opportunity to work with two internationally-recognized found-object assemblage artists. I will guide each participant in creating their own personal MEMORY JUG RELIQUARY, inspired by this enigmatic Victorian-era American folk art of Memory Jugs and Memoryware. 

Susan Wechsler will assist me in this memory jug workshop. She was an awesome student in my last workshop that I held at her studio on February 16-17. What a great group and so talented. We all agreed it was a wonderful experience. Everyone worked so diligently and their memory jugs were fascinating with all the detail in their collections of memorabilia.

Pictured below is one of Susan's Memory Dresses. I am enthralled by the textures and colors we were able to create in her dress. Her 20-year background in art and mosaics made this challenging process proceed smoothly throughout the weekend. Susan is a natural.

Susan Wechsler transformed her Memory Dress form

using several of Laurie's memory jug techniques for the first time.

Pictured below are additional photos I snapped during the workshop. I love how they capture the deep state of concentration each of these participants experienced during the class. Each of the four students explored a unique approach and theme to their Memory Jug. I will post finished pictures of the finished jugs when I receive them all. 

February's Memory Jug Workshop at Susan Wechsler's Studio.
From left: Krystie Rose Millich, Dawn Putney, and Diana Muniz. 

Diana Muniz flew in from Houston, Texas to create
her Memory Jug honoring the passages of her life.

Dawn Putney from Fort Collins, Colorado utilizes
the workshop to create a memorial to her grandmother.

For workshop details and reservations, read the above flyer, or contact: 

lauriebethzuckerman@gmail.com or call Laurie at 970-482-5589

For workshop reservations: 

susan.wechsler@gmail.com or call Susan at 303-485-0636

http://www.mosaicsbysusan.com/

Susan Wechsler Newsletter