LAURIE ZUCKERMAN DAY OF THE DEAD TALK AT HER LOVELAND MUSEUM EXHIBIT POSTPONED TO SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 1 @ 1 pm

Due to the snowstorm, Laurie Zuckerman's Day of the Dead slide lecture and gallery talk in conjunction with her memorial altar exhibit at the Loveland Museum has been postponed until Sunday, November 1, at 1 pm. The museum opens at 12 noon and closes at 4 pm. This is the last day of Laurie's nine-week exhibit.

Please join Laurie for this "closing" event program, which coincides with the first day of the Day of the Dead ceremonies.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN LOVELAND MUSEUM ALTAR EXHIBIT REVIEWED BY KENNETH JESSEN, for the Loveland Reporter-Herald, October 14th

The review below appeared in the Loveland Reporter-Herald on October 14 in conjunction with Laurie Zuckerman's one-woman memorial altar exhibit at the Loveland Museum/Gallery, entitled "Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family." My gratitude to Kenneth Jessen for his thoughtful interview with me, conducted at the museum on September 24, 2009.

[appeared on the front page of the Loveland Reporter-Herald]

As there is not an on-line version of this article, I have retyped this copyrighted article below:

"From the time she was nine, Laurie Zuckerman knew that she was going to be an artist. She drew and painted from an early age but also collected beads, buttons, and shells.

"She grew up in Los Angeles as the daughter of a famous screenwriter, George Zuckerman.

"Over her career, she has had many exhibitions, and her work is on permanent public display from Washington State to Virginia.

"Some of Zuckerman's art takes the form of altars, and of this she says, "I have no idea of why I am doing what I do I find myself collecting things such as religious folk art. It all started when I was living in Blacksburg, Virginia. I had had a successful career in the Pacific Northwest and found that there was little to do here as an artist—it was simply not an art-oriented town.

"Having grown up on the West Coast, it was the first time I saw images of African American culture. I saw bottle dolls that fit over the top of a bottle and were once used as doorstops. Collecting these items was both horrible and beautiful, and I ended up with mixed feelings."

"Zuckerman's parents had a troubled marriage and occupied separate portions of their home. When her father died, her mother didn't even have a funeral. The body was cremated, and someone was hired to sprinkle the ashes on the ocean.

"Zuckerman was denied the grieving process. This was yet another reason she started creating highly personal altars to family members, and in the process incorporated distinctive Christian images.

"Zuckerman lives with these complex altars in her home with as many as three in a room. It has helped her mourn the death of her parents, but she does not pray or light candles. She says, "They are permanent features, and I will always have altars."

"The antique stand for her father's memorial contains scripts he wrote for stars such as Tony Curtis, Rock Hudson and others. Some hold childhood family photographs. To put them on public display is obviously a brave move by Zuckerman. Priceless mementos, culturally specific antiques collected over a long period of time, items from her childhood that have deep, personal meaning, sit out for anyone to see. It exposes her very soul.

"Called "Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family," this intense artistic expression is unlike any previous exhibit at the Loveland Museum/Gallery."

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S DAY OF THE DEAD LECTURE AT LOVELAND MUSEUM OCTOBER 29th

On October 29th, Laurie Zuckerman will present her Day of the Dead lecture in conjunction with her memorial altar exhibition at the Loveland Museum entitled, "Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family." Laurie has been documenting these unique altars and cemetery decorations during the El Diá de los Muertos celebrations in Colonial Mexico during the past several years. She has traveled to cities and villages in the States of Oaxaca and Guanajuato to obtain her photos. Days of meticulous preparations lead up to private remembrances in people's homes, lavish public ofrenda displays, and haunting gravesite rituals. These annual festivities occur November 1-2, in conjunction with All Souls' Day and All Saints' Day.

"The Loveland Museum/Gallery presents artist Laurie Zuckerman’s slide presentation entitled Diá de los Muertos Cemetery Decorations and Ofrenda Altar: Colonial Mexico, in conjunction with her exhibit, Memento Mori: Deconstructing the Nuclear Family. Laurie’s photographic lecture will take place on Thursday, October 29, 2009 from 7 – 8:30 pm downstairs in the Foote Auditorium. Following the talk, Laurie will speak about the personal history behind her own Day of the Dead ofrenda included in her Memento Mori altar exhibition in the Main Gallery. This confrontational installation, entitled Devil May Care, was created in honor of both parents’ memories, both the good and the bad memories. It combines the humor and sorrow of traditional Mexican ofrendas, and incorporates colorful vintage and new Day of the Dead folk art from villages in Colonial Mexico."

Laurie has previously lectured on Mexico's Day of the Dead altars at Virginia Tech University, Front Range Community College, and the Fort Collins Public Library.

The Loveland Museum/Gallery is located at 504 N. Lincoln Avenue, in downtown Loveland, Colorado. Families with older, school-age children are encouraged to attend, as the colorful photography portrays images of toys, sugar candies, and skeleton images traditionally sold for Mexican ofrendas and cemetery decorations.

http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/news/cultsvc_09zuckerman%20slide%20presentation.htm

For even more information about Laurie Zuckerman's exhibition, open through November 1, click below for the Loveland Museum/Gallery newsletter and scroll to page 2.

http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/Cultural_Services/Fall%202009%20Museum%20Newsletter.pdf

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S MEMORY JUGS PROFILED ON KRFC 88.9 FM PROGRAM, SPEAKING OF HISTORY: HOME ON THE RANGE

Laurie Zuckerman's memory jugs, on display at the Loveland Museum, were profiled earlier in October on Fort Collins community radio station KRFC/88.9 FM as part of their program on Storytime Radio entitled "Speaking of History: Ranching Life, Home on the Range." The show is written and hosted by Katy Little and Gail Larsen Khasawneh. Here is a transcript of their show:

"Welcome now to Museum Mysteries. On exhibit at the Loveland Museum Gallery until November 1st is "Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family," altar works by Laurie Zuckerman. Laurie's installation altarpieces and sculpture honor her parents and other members of her family in a heartfelt and long-standing tradition of remembrance.

"Gail and I had research to do at the museum for our "Ranching Life" series, and when we walked into the museum, our attention was drawn to the right, into the gallery and the exhibit "Memento Mori." We were struck by the color of red and the numerous memorabilia that Laurie had collected to form altars: memorial shrines, forget-me-not tins, and memory jugs. We were walking along searching each of the memory jugs, and what should we see—a memory jug that spoke to us of ranching life. It was covered with various tokens of cowboys, Indians, cattle, wagons, horses, and more than we could name.

"We thought it would be fun for this month's "Museum Mystery" to be a memory jug. A memory jug is a hobby craft that is traced to many cultures. In America, it goes back to the Victorian era and to the Southern African-American traditions. A memory jug can be [made from] pottery, crockery, coffee pots, vases. They are covered with personal tokens: cloth, beads, buttons, figurines, shells, and jewelry— anything that might have also belonged to the deceased.

"We have picked a "Museum Mystery" for a visitor to discover at the exhibit "Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family." It is the memory jug titled, "Up in Smoke." We hope you have fun as you stroll through the gallery and your eyes come in contact with that particular memory jug, and how it seemed to pertain to our program: "Ranching Life: Home on the Range."

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN ALTAR EXHIBIT AT THE LOVELAND MUSEUM/GALLERY REVIEWED BY SARAH VAETH, Scene Magazine October 2009

http://www.scenemagazine.info/online_this_month/DivArt.html

Laurie Zuckerman at the Loveland Museum/Gallery
reviewed by Sarah Vaeth for Scene Magazine October 2009

Laurie Zuckerman is a more-is-more artist. In her solo exhibition, Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family, installations and assemblages of found objects take on visual power in proportion to their abundance. 


Moments of gorgeous excess bring an obsessive personal involvement to her use of traditional craft forms of ritual and remembrance: altars and memory jugs. For Zuckerman, the emotionally charged objects (some nostalgic, some troubling) function as a time dredge. Memento Mori is a reflection upon the artist’s childhood in 1950s and early 60s Los Angeles – both the personal history of her family and the society that shaped them. By choosing objects that resonate with memories, Zuckerman re-creates the lost terrain of the past to explore and to analyze. She wryly confronts ambivalent feelings toward her fallible Hollywood parents and toward the faulty political landscape of the Atomic Age: creating a re-vision of childhood from the vantage of adult understanding.


Most of the installations are tied together with a dominant color, which unifies the objects, and has its own symbolic meaning. For example, Red Scare Altar Installation uses red in a complex metaphor. Zuckerman links the stereotyped “Red Man” of her father’s Western screenplays and the pervasive Cowboys-and-Indians games of a 50’s childhood, with Communist “Reds” of the same era. Both are adversaries in mythologized American conflicts. One was familiarized as child’s play. The other formed a fearful backdrop to Zuckerman’s childhood – routinely punctuated with the siren shrieks of air raid drills. Red also refers to the anger and volatility of her parents’ marital conflict, and the constant threat that the family would be “annihilated” by divorce. 


Zuckerman chooses and arranges period objects in a way that colors children’s pass-times with an atmosphere of anxiety. Strikingly, in the center of the altar, toy Cowboys-and-Indians props (tom-toms, feathered headdresses, hatchets, pipes) are placed, together with Chinese and Russian figurines, in the shape of a bomber dropping missiles represented by darts, pick-up-sticks, and bowling pins. 


Zuckerman reintroduces us to artifacts of recent American history – from souvenirs of the Cold War to ugly tokens of racism. But I’m intrigued by the private history she points to with strange symbolic clues – like the lobsters appearing in Red Scare Altar and its companion memory jugs. Zuckerman explains that these recall happy memories of family visits to a seafood restaurant, but more specifically they’re a double-sided recollection of Zuckerman’s mother: her favorite food and her “prickly” personality. 


For the viewer, it takes some time to absorb the narrative richness of Zuckerman’s work. I found myself relying heavily on the museum’s various interpretive materials and on the artist’s own explanations to make out the more obscure connections. Inevitably, my attention was divided back-and-forth between the work and the supporting materials. Rewarding in the end – but I wonder whether Zuckerman could have integrated text or voice narration within the work itself, or some other intrinsic means to guide the viewer through the visual “story.”


Presentation issues notwithstanding, by weaving in symbols of personal reference, Zuckerman addresses uncomfortable social issues in a way that is sincere and self-reflective. Several works honor Anne Dooley, the African American housekeeper who cared for Zuckerman when she was a small child. Zuckerman lays bare a troubled mix of feelings about Dooley’s nurturing but subjugated role in her family. In American Vodou: The Black Madonnas Installation she represents the relationship through a diorama of white baby dolls in the care of stereotyped black mammy dolls: implicating her family in an exploitative system. Yet her childhood bond with Dooley was very real. Zuckerman identifies her as her “better mother.” Without alleviating the intentional discomfort of the piece, she subverts the mammy’s role by dressing the dolls in the garb of the Black Madonna (as used in Haitian Vodou), identifying them with a powerful female archetype. I see in this act a rectifying of the child-caregiver relationship, acknowledging Anne Dooley as a powerful force in Zuckerman’s life. But Zuckerman explains that the Vodou connection first came out of her reaction to the dolls themselves, which looked to her scarily like Vodou dolls.


American Vodou is visually the strongest of the installation pieces. Among the big floor-to-wall installations, it makes the best use of the gallery space: avoiding the intrusion of wall paint and office-pattern carpet that compromises the impact and historical illusion of the other large-scale works. The many smaller altars and intricately encrusted memory jugs are satisfyingly self-contained, well-spaced, and dramatically staged, making this a thoughtful exhibit on the whole.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S MEMORY JUG WORKSHOP NOVEMBER 21-22, 2009: THE ARTISTS' NOOK

Laurie Zuckerman presents a weekend Memory Jug workshop at the Artists' Nook on November 21-22, 2009. Join me for this small intimate workshop limited to the first eight people who register. You don't need to know anything about making memory jugs. I will teach you about techniques and the mysterious sensibilities of this historic American folk art tradition, and get you well on your way to finishing your first memory jug in this two-day class.

To see more examples of Laurie's memory jugs, scroll to older posts on this blog, or even better, attend her current art exhibit at the Loveland Museum, entitled Memento Mori. The exhibit showcases fourteen of her intricately constructed memory jugs alongside her poignant altar installations, all dedicated to her family. Memento Mori opened August 29 and closes on November 1, 2009.

For workshop information and registration for this workshop at the Artists' Nook in Bellvue, Colorado, click on this link: http://www.theartistsnook.net/w-memory_jug.shtml

For information on Laurie's altar and memory jug exhibit at the Loveland Museum in Northern Colorado, click on this link: http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/Cultural_Services/cultural_services_museum_exhibits.htm

For questions directed to me, email: Laurie Zuckerman

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN GALLERY TALK: LOVELAND MUSEUM EXHIBITION—MEMENTO MORI: DECONSTRUCTION OF THE NUCLEAR FAMILY

Laurie Zuckerman presents a free gallery talk and tour of her one-woman altar exhibition at the Loveland Museum entitled, Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family, on Thursday evening, September 24 in the Main Gallery. This unique exhibit includes complex altar installations, Mexican Diá de los Muertos ofrendas, ancestor altars, and intricate memory jugs commemorating her "nuclear family" in the 1950s. The show opened August 29 and continues through November 1, 2009.

Come early or stay later to watch the video interview with Laurie Zuckerman and tour of her altars filmed in her home in Fort Collins. There are also "cellphone tours" that Laurie has recorded for the viewer discussing personal aspects of ten of the altars and memory jugs in the show.

Date: Thursday, September 24, 2009
Time: 7-8:30 pm (evening museum hours are 6-9 pm)
Cost: Free 


Location: Loveland Museum/Main Gallery, 503 N. Lincoln Avenue, Loveland, Colorado
Phone: 970-962-2410 for museum information
http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/Cultural_Services/cultural_services_museum.htm

Here is the text of my artist's biography that appears on-line in conjunction with my exhibit. Just click to enlarge.

MEET LAURIE ZUCKERMAN AT LOVELAND MUSEUM'S "A NIGHT ON THE TOWN" GALLERY WALK FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 11TH

Meet the artist! Laurie Zuckerman will be "in residence" at her Loveland Museum exhibit, Memento Mori: Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family on Friday, September 11, from 6-9 pm, as part of Loveland's A Night on the Town Gallery Walk. I would love to talk with you, plus answer questions or listen to your comments about my memorial show of family altars, installations, memory jugs, shrine photography, and anything else on your mind.

The museum is at 5th and Lincoln in downtown Loveland, Colorado. Here is their website for more information:
http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/Cultural_Services/cultural_services_museum.htm

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S ALTAR AND MEMORY JUG EXHIBIT AT LOVELAND MUSEUM GETS PRESS

Laurie Zuckerman's altar and memory jug exhibit at the Loveland Museum has been receiving some good Northern Colorado press both on-line and in the traditional "paper" newspapers in Fort Collins and Loveland, the Coloradoan and the Reporter-Herald. Take a look at these on-line articles!

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S MEMORY JUGS AND ALTARS PROFILED IN LYNNE PERRELLA'S NEW BOOK: ART MAKING AND STUDIO SPACES

Laurie Zuckerman's altars and memory jugs were photographed in her home studio last summer by Lynne Perrella and Sarah Blodgett for Lynne's new book: Art Making and Studio Spaces: Unleash Your Inner Artist:An Intimate Look at 31 Creative Workspaces. Lynne and Sarah travelled the country photographing selected art studios for Lynne's next book. They spent about four hours documenting every room of my house, since my studio spaces are spread all over the living spaces of the house, so people will get to see my family memorial jugs and home altars in context. The book is due for a January 2010 release.

I have just seen page layouts from the publisher and it looks great. My profile in the book spans six pages with text, quotes, and color photographs of my artwork in progress in the various studio spaces and display areas throughout my house. It will be fascinating to see all the other artists' studios and artwork. I have also contributed my own photos of my altars to her book, which Lynne is planning to use as the front and back inner pages of the book. I can't wait to see it!

Here is the impressive list of artists in the book. I am in great company:

Lynne Perrella
Lisa Hoffman
Lyn Bleiler
Monica Riffe
Judi Riesch
Michelle Ward
Pam Sussman
Linda & Opie O'Brien
Ellen Kochansky
Maria Moya
Bee Shay
Terrie Moore
Bill Wilson
Tracy V. Moore
Faye Anderson
Keith Lobue
Sas Colby
Steven Sorman
Melissa Zink
Armando Lopez
Nancy Anderson
R. O. Blechman
Fred Otnes
Sarah Blodgett
Pamela Armas
Jamie Purinton
LAURIE ZUCKERMAN
Michael deMeng
Judy Wilkenfeld
Johnnie Meier

Here is information about the book direct from Lynne Perrella:

* Hundreds of onsite photos, plus insights by the artists
* Visual essays on studios excerpted from Lynne’s mixed media art journals

“What a super opportunity! I have always wanted to write a book about studios, and this was my chance to not only visit studios here in the Hudson Valley in New York but also to travel throughout the Northeast and Southwest. My photographer, Sarah Blodgett, captured every detail; plus I was blessed to receive photos from several artists who did an amazing job of capturing their studio environments. Just about everyone obeyed my request – “Don’t clean up!” Unlike other rooms, studios defy all the usual rules of form and function. Never truly “finished” or static, these workspaces remain available, elastic, and open for business, while intensely private and personal.

"This remarkable creative group have thrown open the doors, windows, and drawers of their studios and welcomed us inside for look. Unique and distinctive as its inhabitant; and as personal as a signature, each studio awaits. Join me!” - Lynne Perrella

If you are interested, you can pre-order this book at Amazon.com. Here's Amazon's own blurb about the book:

Art Making and Studio Spaces is a visual studio tour, an opportunity to turn the key and discover the inner workings of artists in their ultra-personal, unique workspaces. The mission of the book is to look inside studios in progress, amidst the throes of the artmaking process, and to investigate the thoughts of the artists within. This book reveals the interplay between artist and studio, and explores how each workspace reflects a different, distinctive creative journey. Photography by Sarah Blodgett, plus contributed photos by some of the artists, combines with personal insights to provide an incomparable studio tour that will inspire you to create your own private work space. Pages from Lynne Perrella’s art journal are included, to give further insight into this bottomless topic of "art and where it happens."

Lynne Kendall Perrella is a mixed-media artist, author, designer, workshop instructor, and incurable collector. Her interests include collage, assemblage, one-of-a-kind books, and art journals. She conducts creativity workshops in the United States and abroad and exhibits collage in galleries throughout the Berkshire Mountains.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S ALTAR EXHIBIT OPENS AT LOVELAND ART MUSEUM AUGUST 29, 2009

Laurie Zuckerman's solo exhibit at the Loveland Museum/Gallery opens Saturday, August 29, 2009 with an artist's reception from 6-9 pm. Please join me at the opening of my exhibit, MEMENTO MORI: Deconstructing the Nuclear Family, honoring my family during my Cold War era childhood. The show will be chocked full of home altars and huge altar installations, a Day of the Dead ofrenda, 14 memory jugs, and dozens of shrine photographs from Mexico and the Southwest. I have created nearly all of the work in this exhibit since 2001, and much of it has never been on view in Northern Colorado or anywhere else. It is my most extensive exhibit to date, as the Main Gallery of the Loveland Museum is a huge exhibition space at 3750 square feet.

I do hope to see you at my opening of "MEMENTO MORI: Deconstructing the Nuclear Family. If you miss the opening, then you'll still have until November 1, 2009 to catch my exhibit. I will be giving two lectures in conjunction with the show, so watch for posts announcing the Gallery Talk and the Day of the Dead Lecture. The museum newsletter, posters, and showcard are due out anyday.

The Loveland Museum/Gallery has posted this announcement and press release at these two links:

http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/Cultural_Services/cultural_services_museum_tempexh_upcoming.htm

http://www.ci.loveland.co.us/news/CultSvc_09Laurie%20Zuckerman.htm

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN PHOTOGRAPHS SANCTUARIO DE CHIMAYO IN NEW MEXICO

Laurie Zuckerman visited the Sanctuario de Chimayo in Northern New Mexico, northeast of Santa Fe during Spring Break. They now have regulations against photographing inside the churches, but it is still okay to photography outside in the courtyard below the church. Here are two shots of the wooden crucifix that is so laden with rosaries, petitions, and christmas lights, it is almost unrecognizable as a Christ. The last shot is of one of the cyclone fences surrounding the courtyard. The entire fence is threaded with handmade wooden crosses. The Sanctuario is a world famous shrine. Not to be missed!! It is my personal favorite place in New Mexico.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN PHOTOGRAPHS HISTORIC FOLK ART SITES IN CENTRAL NEW MEXICO

Laurie Zuckerman traveled to New Mexico in March in came across an historic ranch called Pueblo Bonito, just south of Mountaineer. This property built and designed by Pop Schaefer in the 1920s and 30s is listed on the National Historic Register of Places.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN PHOTOGRAPHS UNUSUAL NEW MEXICAN BOTTLE TREE

Laurie Zuckerman's March visit to New Mexico uncovered a classic folk art bottle tree in the middle of a remote area southeast of Albuquerque. But look carefully. Those aren't blue glass bottles as are typically seen in the South. Those are aluminum beer cans! Someone did a lot of drinking in order to construct this tree. Still it looks pretty good.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN CREATES MINIATURE FORGET-ME-NOT ALTARS

Laurie Zuckerman has been working on a large series of tiny altars she calls Forget-Me-Not boxes for the past couple of years. These three photos are examples from the set that I have completed this winter, most of which will be included in my solo altar exhibit at the Loveland Art Museum, as they accompany a full-size altar of the same name. Let me know what you think? Never worked this small before. My show opens August 29-November 1, 2009. Watch for new posts!

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN PHOTOGRAPHS NEW MEXICAN CHURCHES, CEMETERIES, AND ROADSIDE SHRINES DURING 2009 SPRING BREAK TRIP

Laurie Zuckerman just returned from this year's Spring Break adventure to New Mexico to photograph the St. Augustine Church at the Isleta Pueblo, the Salinas Pueblo Mission National Monument, and a host of remote cemeteries and churches in the Spanish Land Grant communities southeast of Albuquerque. It is always a treat to find beautiful statuary in the churches, so I am posting a few of the best pieces from the Isleta Pueblo. Below is a shot from the large shrine on the church plaza. St. Augustine was established in 1613. It is one of the oldest mission churches in the United States.

Discovered the Salinas Pueblo Mission ruins on the internet, having never heard about them prior. All three of the distinct sites were stunning, my favorite was the Quarai Ruins. The scale of this early 17th century Spanish Franciscan Church was magnificent. At least four stories high.


One of my favorite churches along our route was built in 1829 in the village of Manzano. I received special access to the church by the metalsmith who had designed the gates to the cemetery surrounding the church.


As always, the condition of the cemeteries is one of neglect, vandalism, and deterioration. I have been documenting the Hispanic cemeteries of New Mexico and Southern Colorado for at least six years now, in pursuit of publishing a photography book. I found some wonderful folk art graves on this journey to the eastside of the Manzano Mountains. Here are two out of the hundreds of pictures I am sorting through this week.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN'S SOLO ALTAR AND MEMORY JUG EXHIBITION AT LOVELAND ART MUSEUM OPENS AUGUST 29, 2009

Laurie Zuckerman is working furiously on new artwork for her upcoming solo exhibition at the Loveland Art Museum in Northern Colorado. I am working on altar installations, memory jugs, memory boxes, and shrine photography, most of which has never been exhibited before or in Northern Colorado. Almost all of the three-dimensional assemblages have been created to memorialize each of my deceased parents, Blanche and George Zuckerman. The show is entitled Memento Mori: The Deconstruction of the Nuclear Family.

It'll take me two weeks just to set up the show, as the gallery is nearly 4000 square feet. That kind of space holds a lot of altars. The museum curator and her new exhibits curator are coming to my studio at the end of this month to finalize the construction details for the exhibition. I have everything laid out on a floor plan for them to review, although I keep erasing things and shuffling them around.

The opening reception is set for Saturday, August 29, 2009 from 6-9 pm. The show closes on The Day of the Dead—November 2, 2009. I have friends and family flying in from around the country. Loveland is only a few stunning miles up the Big Thompson Canyon to Estes Park and the Rocky Mountain National Park.

LAURIE ZUCKERMAN PHOTOGRAPHS CHRISTMAS FESTIVALS IN OAXACA, MX: EL NOCHÉ DE LOS RABANOS, aka THE NIGHT OF THE RADISHES

Laurie Zuckerman spent two weeks photographing the 2008 Christmas holiday festivals in sunny Oaxaca, the highlight of which is El Noché de los Rabanos. Here are my favorite radish displays from the Night of the Radish Festival in Oaxaca, Mexico. I was fascinated by the traditional religious themes carved out of hugh gnarly radishes that begin drying out the minute the artists start carving. These are my picks for the most magical of these spiritual displays, including the birth of Jesus, Oaxaca's patron saint—the Virgen de Soledad, a Mexican funeral, and a nativity scene.





These next photos are the two most complex cornhusk creations, known as Totomoxtle. I was completely amazed by the intricate details in this first creation showing a procession of Jesuses in front of the Catedral. I am hoping that this artist won the contest. I spent hours photographing the man setting up this installation.







My next favorite cornhusk creation is this tableau of Christian themes, including the Crucifixion and the Last Supper.



And this little display of is Jesus on a donkey or a horse, at least I think it is Jesus, was very touching. I never saw anything like these for sale, but I would have bought this one.


Here are my favorites from the strawflower, or immortal flower competition. The first photo shows the Crucifixion. The next three figures are the three most popular Virgins of Oaxaca: the Virgin of Guadalupe, the Virgin of Soledad, and the Virgin of Juquila. A little abstract perhaps, but sweet and colorful.