A Day of the Dead Painting

Coyote Women meet in the Zocalo

They are getting together for a comparsa that will wind its way thru el centro de Oaxaca.

Oaxaquita's Summer Celebrations

 A photo from Oaxaca, the fireworks of the castillo.  Fiesta time in Oaxaca, the Guelaguetza, various celebrations thoughout the state, and in the city.

Guelaguetza in Los Angeles

Temple at Monte Alban

One of the oldest temple pyramids at Monte Alban which was started in 500 BC. Monte Alban sits on a mountain top outside Oaxaca Mexico.  I love this particular temple and used to be able to climb on it.  It is where I really understood there were advanced civilizations here in the Americas before the Europeans arrived.  It reminded me of the Hopewell Mound where I grew up in Indiana.  They are from the same time period. This one built by Zapotecs, one of the oldest Mexican cultures. It is more architectually advanced than the mound in Indiana. 

The Ancient Americas are more interesting to me than Asia or Europe or the Middle East or India--though I have read alot about those ancient cultures. Still, here in the Americas I have explored and meditated at some of the most amazing and interesting places.  These sites were created by people who did not use the wheel and had no large draft animals.  Monte Alban, a flattened mountain top, was constructed by human hands only.

Spring Photos from Teotitlan del Valle.

 The local bus from Oaxaca, thru Teotitlan to Benito Juarez in the mountains.
                                                                      
Part of an old wall from the prehispanic temple in Teo.  Very old--recently exposed behind the church.

Spring....Zapotec Offering...Painting by Mitzi Linn

Here's a little gouache painting I started awhile back and tucked away to finish later.  Corn offerings, or sacred bundles, in the foreground along with the water and fire serpents.  Time to plant somewhere in Zapotec land, or Oaxaca.  May spring bring new life and a respect for the old customs and cultures.

Photo of dancer...La Danza de la Pluma....Oaxaca

La Espirituosa

A card I received for my birthday.  I had to laugh.  Refers to my old days as Tarot reader, and healer and teacher.  Gosh, that whole era in my life seems like a dream that lasted about 15 years and ended about 20 years ago. It's like a past life within this one--a life I felt passionately about and did my best to try to be of benefit to others.  After that, painting took over. Still I hope my artwork inspires and helps others.  The friends signed the card saying "stay weird".

Recuerdos de Oaxaca

Painting by Mitzi Linn.....Oaxaca II: 2004

        Recuerdos de Oaxaca
The mescal I am drinking evokes Oaxaca. 
Memories, sound collages, smells/ 
textures create images in my psyche.
      Warm days and nights,
my friends, folk musicians, jazz musicians,
singing and playing in the palm tree patio of
the original El Sol y La Luna Restuarant.

I listen to familiar songs.  Grupo Quetzalcoatl, and then
Lila Downs’ distinct strong voice rising above a pueblo band.
“Pinotepa”, “La Sandunga”  
“La Cancion Mixteca”, which, written by
a homesick Mixtec migrant worker in the US,
plaintively calls up “ tierra del sol.....
I am dying to see you.....................”

Mexico’s myriad of technicolor impressions!
Friends’ faces, native traje, the Zocalo, long bus rides, churches,
Colorful houses and mountain market towns crowd my mind.
conversations in Spanish and English, Zapotec,Mixtec--
this overflow of images, weave together
inner and outer realities.

Nostalgia,  like Moctezuma’s revenge,
strikes suddenly, renders me incoherent.
Whatever I have to say is lost 
or inexpressible.

               Here in el norte
Electric lights struggle against the gray Oregon day.
No light here ever shines bright enough to touch
the light in the valley between
the Sierra Madre and the Sierra Juarez.

I decorate this living room to
resemble a folkart store in Oaxaca.
I put bright colored weavings and warm rugs
around myself, light candles and
sing along with Lila.  

Carved painted animals,
Sun and Moon masks, rattles for Mayan ceremonies,
Tibetan tangkas and Huichol yarn paintings
Create my familiar altar
    in this sacred space.

Tasting a little mescal,
calls up Cocijo, the Zapotec god of
thunder, rain, lightning,
I offer it to the Virgins on the Altar,
    Guadelupe and Juquila,
and to benefit all beings.

The tiniest wiff of that dark smoky drink is
enough to awaken the living
the dead, and those somewhere
in between.

Offered copal  smokes the room.
I sit in front of this newly made altar
I begin to send out blessings
to all who come to mind.
Their names become a chant......
The chant entrances me.

Mitzi Linn 1997

                       


                                                       

New finds at Atzompa Oaxaca.

 Portrait of "8 Temor" a person from Atzompa around 800 AD.

 Closer foto of the 2.5 ft figure.  Painted still in red, green and oche.  

 The remains of a goddess ceramic vase or pot from the same tomb.

Here are some photos from INAH in Mexico of ceramics found at a Oaxacan tomb.  The ancient Zapotecs made these wonderful personal vases and offering ceramic pots representing actual people, as well as dieties.  I have always really admired them since seeing them first in the 1980's  But most are not colored like these and are just gray clay.