Alebrijes off the beaten path

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• Published on Monday, 20 June 2011 21:37
• By Allendria Brunjes

Indigo, teal, sienna, ocher, red, and violet – the natural pigments of the Oaxaca region's rainbow adorn Jacobo Ángeles Ojeda's workshop.

There, about a dozen people sit every day, brushing the natural paints onto alebrijes. Alebrijes are finely-painted wooden sculptures made from copal wood, created and popularized in Oaxaca in the 20th century.

Located in San Martín Tilcajete – a half-hour drive from Oaxaca – Ángeles' workshop and school teaches artists the process of releasing creatures from their wooden confines.

"It is a product which, you will find, can be decorative clutter," Ángeles said. "But when people see how we look for [each piece's] spiritual form, they love it."

Last Friday, I visited the workshop to watch each step of alebrije creation, from carving the wood to the details of the fine Zapotec designs. The artists host visitors as well, offering tours of the workshop.

Considered one of Mexico's finest alebrije artists, Ángeles' works have been shown throughout Mexico, as well as at the Smithsonian in New York and the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago.

And his skill shows through his students.

From the bright acrylic-painted dragon at the door to the little butterflies with skeleton bodies, each work is created with care. Each piece connects the spiritual with the material, as our tour guide Nestor Melchor Ojeda said.

He showed us a piece that was specially ordered, noting that while the person wanted a duplicate of something else, their alebrijes can never be exact copies due to the nature of the wood.

"We had to carve a similar piece," he said. "I say ‘similar’ because it could not be equal in the size or in the form. They are completely different."

Melchor showed us how the artists make natural paints, as well, using things like lime and pomegranate seeds to create pigments.

While not as vibrant as the acrylic paints, these natural pigments are much finer, a quality needed to produce the intricate Zapotec designs.

In addition to the tour, our guide told OT reporter Daniel Fridman and I what our Zapotec spirit animals are. He's a hummingbird. I'm apparently an opossum – though I don't think I fit with the "motherly" characteristics of the creature.

Nevertheless, the experience is an interesting one for anyone who would like to see what is really behind the little painted creatures that are ubiquitous in Oaxacan markets.