Fanciful Creatures in Ocumicho

This will be one last post about our travels with Dirceau from Barro Sin Plomo/Echery Pottery in Patzcuaro. We saw a few delightful clay figures at the Echery office and asked about the artist. We could go there, of course! As we road along on the 2.5 hour drive we passed wooded hillsides, small villages, and some very sparsely inhabited countryside. The winding roads finally stopped at Ocumicho, Michoacan, Mexico. Zenaida Rafael Julian lives and works in this small Perepeche village. We needed to ask directions to her house and also needed to park the car and walk. This picture tells you why.


At last we found the house and workshop of Zenaida. She keeps her finished work wrapped in plastic, but happily unveiled fanciful (and frightful) creatures one after another.


After we selected a group to bring to Chiripa in Madison, Wisconsin Zenaida sat down to demonstrate her work.


She learned her craft from her mother and started shaping traditional figures at age 14. But her imagination took over and she needed to express herself with images that were not traditional. And they sold, so, she kept on making her original figures. Zenaida wins competitions with monetary rewards. These she uses to build a new house and to support her family.

As we left Zenaida's home we marvelled at the spectacular landscape and the humble people who inhabit it.


For those of you waiting for the truck that will bring Zenaida's figures and those of the other artists that we visited in February: it's on it's way!!!