Love in San Miguel

Art lovers . . . Poetry lovers . . . Music lovers . . . Food lovers . . . Peace lovers . . . Animal lovers . . . Nature lovers . . . We have them all here in San Miguel . . .

Expressing their love for San Miguel, many of the city’s artists, both full-time residents and tourists, paint street scenes or portraits of street vendors or campesinos who come into town with their burros bearing produce from the surrounding farms. These paintings are done predominantly in the style of impressionism, and they are basically highly romanticized pictures of urban life. Charming, yes, but not very inspiring. Another favorite subject is the facades of the many Spanish-style churches found throughout the historic center, or centro historico. With a few exceptions, the streets and buildings of San Miguel are not as beautiful as those in some of the major cities in Mexico. 

To my way of thinking, however, the best way to express one’s love for this city is to capture the vitality of the people who live here. It’s the Mexican people who make their homes here, who grew up here and have families that go back several generations that make San Miguel beautiful. And the children! The children here have some of the most beautiful faces I’ve ever seen! And what about the young lovers, the teenagers who kiss for hours on the benches in the public squares, oblivious to everything around them! Or the twenty-somethings who stop in the street to embrace and kiss before continuing their graceful amble along the street? Or the middle-aged couples who walk arm in arm or hand in hand? Love is strongly in the air here, and that is much more important than stone structures with climbing flowers or windows with potted plants.

When I look at photos of the remaining buildings and pyramids of the Mayan civilization, for example, I am not moved. The same is true of the Egyptian pyramids, or the remaining structures in Rome’s Ostia Antica. Impressive in their size and scale, perhaps, but they leave me cold.  The spirit of the people who lived there is gone.

If San Miguel artists want to paint trite and clichéd street scenes they are not truly expressing their love for the city. They are playing it safe by catering to the herd’s need for comfortable images. They are not doing a service to San Miguel’s people.

Better to show the Mexicans who live here laughing, dancing, eating, working, and simply enjoying life with their celebrations and fiestas. If San Miguel vanishes a hundred years from now and there’s nothing left but ruins, which images will tell the truth about the people who lived here?

A Time for Reflection

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is my time for deep reflection. It’s a time for me to focus on the hard questions about life and art – am I living to my full potential? am I fulfilling my creative objectives?

The artist residents of San Miguel should utilize some or all of this week for collectively reflecting on what kind of a city we want to create for ourselves now and for future generations. Are we going to be happy with a city of pleasure for the elite but unlivable for the majority?

Clogged with traffic and choking on fumes, we are in danger of committing suicide by tourism. The city is growing too fast. Our cultural riches are being cheapened by commercialism. I doubt most of us would say, yes, we endorse this kind of rampant growth. Inevitably, the commercial potential is being exploited by those who seek only to profit from the city’s exploding popularity. But we artists should take up the role of the conscience of the city. I believe it’s our moral duty – we should protect and preserve the best of the city that has been so good to us.

San Miguel's Art Glut

There's a definite art glut in San Miguel. Art is everywhere, and that's not a bad thing because it helps to beautify the city. But it's getting harder for galleries to stay open. Too much competition, I suspect. Just learned today that a gallery with good art by serious artists in a prime location that's been open for the last 8 years is going out of business, and will be closing its doors forever this  week. Knowing what I do about the owners, I'd say the reason they are closing is lack of sales.

Earthquake in Mexico City, 19 September 2017

The Artist and the Model

As every art teacher will tell you, drawing from photographs is a bad habit. It is always better to draw from a live model. And with so many nude photos readily available on the web it is very hard to resist the temptation to use them. Okay, fine, but when you’re an independent artist and models are hard to come by what do you do? Yes, you can join a figure drawing group with live models. I’ve done this many times but always found it unsatisfactory because I could not pose the models myself and had to accept the limited settings of a drawing studio when I would prefer to have my models in a natural environment. Also, and most importantly, an artist has to find a model with whom he has a rapport, one who inspires him and possibly has a good understanding of what he is trying to accomplish. After all, the artist-model relationship must grow out of trust and mutual understanding. You can’t have that with a random model who is posing in a classroom or a studio with several other artists present. I use live models whenever I can, but I prefer to photograph them and do my preliminary sketching from the photos rather than have the models pose for hours in my studio. This approach has worked well for me, and I have to admit that I have used photos for some of my best work. San Miguel has a limited number of good models, so if you’re a figurative painter, be prepared to use photos when you come to San Miguel to work.

Why Is Modern Art So Bad?

In this video, Robert Florczak of Prager University explains why modern art is so terribly bad. I am in complete agreement with every major point in his argument, but I must exclude the work of Matisse, Modigliani, Picasso, Dali and their contemporaries from this blanket condemnation. However, I would include abstract-expressionism. Also, I believe he has left out something important. Contemporary art, art produced after 1950 or so, isn't great, isn't good, and it isn't even shocking -- it is simply mediocre.

“For two millennia, great artists set the standard for beauty. Now those standards are gone. Modern art is a competition between the ugly and the twisted; the most shocking wins. What happened? How did the beautiful come to be reviled and bad taste come to be celebrated? Renowned artist Robert Florczak explains the history and the mystery behind this change and how it can be stopped and even reversed.” (credit: Artisan's Atlas)

House Hunting for Artists in San Miguel

I’ve noticed that there are many more people making inquiries about renting or buying a house in San Miguel before they arrive in the city. I believe this is a mistake. You cannot rely on what realtors and sellers tell you about living in the city – you’ve got to see it for yourself in order to decide if living here long term is right for you. Whether you are planning to rent or buy, the old adage about location-location-location certainly applies here in spades. San Miguel’s neighborhoods are very diverse.

Many people want to live in centro, the historical downtown, but they will have to pay a premium, the highest rates in the city for the privilege of being within 15-minute walking distance of just about everything except the large supermarkets. There are plenty of livable neighborhoods on the fringes of centro, but they each have their pluses and minuses.

You must consider the major housing options:

1)    A traditional house built of bricks and concrete, often but not always with small rooms, a patio and/or a roof-top terrace, some kind of greenery 

2)    A modern house in an upscale neighborhood such as Los Frailes, Balcones or Atascadero. For the artist on a budget, these are quite pricey at $150,000 to 300,000 USD.

3)    A condo usually for adults only with green spaces and often a communal area, such as El Secreto or Las Ventanas. There are quite a few of these in town, also pricey.

4)    A pre-fab style development of mostly 3-bedroom, 2-bath houses with patios and terraces on the roof that you will probably want to customize to suit your needs. There are many of these, primarily on the outskirts, and more seem to be erupting all the time. Priced in the $80,000 -100,000 USD range.

As an artist, you will of course need studio space, and many of the houses here have an extra bedroom that can be converted into a comfortable work area. The older houses here have many different layout configurations, and you will be pleased with the wealth of variety and the many options for studios.

Simplicity, Minimalism and Contemporary Design in San Miguel

Simplicity is our byword. My wife and I live it every day in the choices we make about where to eat, shop, or simply relax. We do it by planning out our strategy for our daily activities. Our lives are much simpler and more manageable without a car, which we gave up 2 years ago in favor of a scooter to get us around town. If the sky looks dark and stormy or just pregnant with rain, we leave the scooter home and walk, knowing we can always take a bus or a taxi home if we feel worn out or if there’s a torrential downpour during the rainy season (roughly July to September).

In contrast to the traditional buildings and houses of San Miguel, our house is minimalistic and Euro-contemporary.  It’s made of brick and concrete covered with plaster and painted white inside with a mostly white exterior. It has an open layout on the ground floor. Most of the houses in our neighborhood are similarly constructed with mostly white exteriors. (Looking out from our rooftop terrace I’m struck by how much it resembles a village on a Greek island.) However, we made some modifications to the interior layout to make it more open with a clean, contemporary style.

Our preference for interior design is also minimalistic. We decided not to drill holes or put nails or screws in the walls whenever we could avoid it, so the kitchen has one long shelf and a free-standing unit and all dishes, utensils and food are in drawers.  Some of my paintings rest on the top of a long bookcase. In furnishings, we favor mid-century modern. This is also in contrast with the dominant décor of San Miguel’s casas, where the great majority of them are decorated in the traditional ornate and rustic Mexican style. (If you rent a house here you will most likely get that type of décor.)

The frustrating part of our minimalistic lifestyle is that good quality mid-century modern furniture is extremely hard to come by in Mexico, especially in San Miguel. There is a vintage furniture store in Mexico City that sells restored pieces (vintage-antic.mx), but as of this writing they have only a very limited inventory.

So if you have the same taste in décor, my advice is to bring pieces with you or plan to have them shipped to San Miguel.

If you are interested in hiring an architect to work with you on designing a contemporary house in San Miguel, check out these web sites. I can't personally recommend these architects but they have been recommended by people in SMA who have worked with them.

www.arquitectoluiscamarena.com 

https://www.discoversma.com/places/mexico/guanajuato/san-miguel-de-allende/architectural-services/domus-arquitectura/

REQUIEM FOR A CITY: San Miguel's Changing Demographics

A word of caution to artists who want to come to San Miguel to make a career for themselves. The demographics of this city have changed drastically over the last 5 years, and most of the expats from the US and Canada who are coming here are not very interested in art, education or culture. Apparently, all the hype about San Miguel being the world's best city to visit (not to live in, mind you) has spurred people who are seeking the "good life" to come  here by the busload. Some of the latest evidence to confirm this – three serious Lifelong Learning classes scheduled for this July and August have just been cancelled due to low enrollment. A friend of mine who was offering acting for beginners starting in June could not find enough students to fill the class. And even the two anchor institutions, Bellas Artes and the Instituto Allende, seem to be offering fewer and fewer art classes. Ditto for individual artist who teach here.

The city's culture is suffering a rapid death by tourism.

So be advised, dear artists – if you are in your 30s, 40s or 50s and want to make a living as a teaching-artist, go elsewhere. Go to Europe. Go to Florence, Paris, Prague, Berlin, or Barcelona, but do not come to San Miguel. More and more, the city is a place for retirees living on social security and small pensions, and they are people who lack the means and/or the desire to buy art.

I regret sounding so gloomy and pessimistic, but that’s my perception of what’s happening here. I hope I’m wrong, but I don’t think so. The city is in serious cultural decline and I don’t see it recovering its former “magic” any time soon.

So this may be my last post. There’s nothing more to say about a dying city.

Painter or Artist?

"Anyone can learn to paint. Sometimes it seems that the less one is an artist the more easily and quickly one can acquire the superficial qualities of a painter."

-- Kimon Nicolaides in his book The Natural Way to Draw

The Economics of Life in San Miguel (Revised and Updated)

HOUSING and STUDIO SPACE

If you are planning to move to San Miguel for at least a year or more, do it as soon as possible. Rent prices are going up fast.  Rent for a decent 2 bedroom with studio space and a patio in the middle-class bohemian neighborhoods of San Antonio and Guadalupe used to go for around $4000 pesos. Now the same size houses are renting for $500-600 USD if you rent from gringos. Most expat landlords (and there are quite a few) are setting rents in dollars rather than pesos. That’s significant because of the strength of the dollar (now at 18 pesos). Obviously it’s a better deal if you can pay rent in pesos, which means renting from a Mexican owner. Soon even they will be renting in dollars, or dollar equivalents.

A recent development – expats are posting messages on Yahoo groups offering to pay up to $1000 USD and more for decent 2-bedroom apartments or small houses. Take a look at the postings on Craigslist for housing in Guanajuato and you’ll see what I mean.

FOOD

The cost of a good meal in a decent restaurant is going up. A full-course broiled salmon lunch used to cost 140 pesos – it’s now 250 pesos. Tikka chicken at a curry house was 95 pesos and is now 150 pesos. Chicken parmaggiano at a family-run Olive Garden-type Italian restaurant is 120 pesos, but over 200 pesos at a finer place. Wine will cost at least 70 pesos a glass, beer 30 pesos minimum. Of course there are many small family-run restaurants where you can eat good authentic Mexican food for 50 to 100 pesos. A buffet in Centro charges 75 pesos for all you can eat. The one gringo-run restaurant exception is a popular place called Cafe Monet – a decent sandwich goes for 50 pesos and the daily special will set you back about 80 or 90 – they’ve held their prices down for years without compromising the quality of the food and the old world decor.

There are two major supermarkets in town, Soriana and La Comer (formerly called Mega). Their prices are inching up. You and your partner will spend an average of 900 pesos per week if you buy a lot of meat, 750 if you only buy chicken and fish for four meals. Plan to spend more if you want beer and wine. A six-pack of good Mexican cerveza goes for an average of 70 pesos. Table wine from Carlo Rossi is 95 pesos; anything else from California, Europe or South America is in the 150-250 peso range.

CLOTHING

Good, durable clothing is hard to come by in San Miguel. At Liverpool, the Macy’s equivalent, you will pay 900 pesos for a pair of Dockers or Levis for men, 800 pesos for a shirt, and 800 pesos for Flexi shoes (excellent quality and made in Mexico). Women will have to pay considerably more. However, women can shop at consignment shops (there are many), but none for men for some odd reason. Every one, children and adults, can find an occasional bargain at the tianguis – a huge open market that is open once a week, and there are smaller markets in almost every neighborhood where you can shop 7 days a week.

IN CONCLUSION

San Miguel remains a relatively inexpensive place to live for artists, but this may not last much longer. The SOHO effect is taking hold here. Artists have made this city a truly wonderful place to live, and now the affluent are moving in and driving up prices.

Art and Politics in San Miguel

The San Antonio Art Walk takes place on the last weekend of this month (February). San Antonio is the neighborhood in San Miguel with the largest population of working artists. There are now 65 artists who are taking part in this annual event. Sixty-five! How many visitors can be expected per studio? Not that many. My guess is that some studios will get a lot and others not many at all. That's usually how it goes. 

These artists have formed some kind of association, with dues and by-laws and the delegation of tasks such as sending out press releases and coordinating of their preview party which this year is being held at a hotel (that's a lot of wine and a lot of pre-event kissing up and schmoozing with potential buyers -- my idea of hell on earth). Sounds like there's a lot of money and work involved for a two-day event with only a remote chance for sales. Personally, I prefer my independence and loathe being part of a club that will put demands on my time and involve a lot of politics. I hate politics. You can't have an organized group of 65 people without rules and fees and politics.

But here's the worst part -- these artists have nothing in common except for the fact that they all live in the same neighborhood. They are not like the Impressionists, the Post-Impressionists, the Symbolists, the Surrealists, the Pre-Raphaelites, or, for that matter, the artists of the Italian Renaissance, because they are not united by a common set of principles, a common vision, or a raison d'etre of any kind. All they have in common is the fact that they live in the same neighborhood and want to sell art.

If artists are going to form associations, they should be based on supportive friendships and common beliefs, and they should be free of any business encumbrances. Money will poison the good fellowship of a group of creative artists. When money is involved in an enterprise of any kind, people become more selfish and the dynamics of power come into play. In this respect, artists are no different from other people.  

Death of an Artist

I read yesterday of the death of one of San Miguel’s more serious artists, a Mexican who was well regarded and well loved, from what I’ve heard. Even though I’ve never met him, I was deeply saddened by this news, especially because there are precious few truly serious artists left in San Miguel these days. But also because his death was sudden and no doubt he was working on a project that will remain forever unfinished. All passionately creative artists have more ideas than they can possibly put onto canvas, and we must all one day have our creative energy abruptly terminated by death. One day our creative output will be cut off and we will have painted our last picture and have no time left to say all we had wanted to say. It is not a pleasant thought -- it is in fact a very grim thought, but it should move us to produce all that we can in whatever time we have left.  

Beauty and the Soul

Great beauty produces a rapture in the soul, and in the soul of an artist this rapture is more intense than it is in the soul of the average individual. When the artist produces a work of art which he considers to be beautiful it is because he is experiencing the rapture of the soul which compels him to express these emotions in his art. I’m sure Van Gogh felt this rapture when he looked upon a starry night. Gauguin must have felt it in Tahiti when he saw the harmony of man and nature. I feel this heightened rapture of the soul when I look at a young girl who is innocently unselfconscious of her loveliness.

Proverbial wisdom tells us that beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but there is an undeniable universal beauty in the world masterpieces of art, music, theater, and dance. We can define a masterpiece as that which has the universal power and beauty to move us more profoundly than an “ordinary” work of art. Great beauty stirs the soul to unknown depths of rapture while at the same time raising it to new heights of enlightenment. In short, great beauty is an enigma that moves the soul in ways we cannot understand.

The Day of the Dead in San Miguel

Art works in honor of Dia de Los Muertos should emphasize the spiritual over the commercial. Much of the art work I’m seeing around town is much more commercial than it should be. It is dead art. Caterinas, painted skulls, and skeletons abound. Is this respectful to the sacred tradition of the holiday? Families get together to make flowers and use them to adorn altars, they gather at home or at el cementerio to remember their departed loved ones, they DO NOT dance around with someone dressed up as a Catrina, and to multiply these Catrina figures (a skeleton dolled up as a tawdry female, for those who don’t know) does a terrible disservice to the spiritual beliefs of the occasion. You might even go as far as to call it sacrilegious. As art in honor of the day, it is all rather tasteless.

Other subjects related to the holiday are more imaginative and meaningful. Take, for example, my painting “Making Flowers for the Day of the Dead” (see below). I painted this while I was still living in Zacatecas, a city, I am happy to say, that has eschewed or at least avoided the commercialism of San Miguel in this regard. The image is of three women, an old woman and her granddaughters, making flowers to be used on an altar. The old woman looks directly at the viewer because she is prepared for and willing to face Death, who is not in the picture but should be understood to be standing before the group. The two younger women look askance, over their shoulders because they sense the presence of Death but are not ready or willing to face him – it is not their time.

                                                “Making Flowers for the Day of the Dead”

The Starving Artist's Restaurant Guide

Let me begin by saying this is not meant to be a comprehensive guide to the economical places to eat in San Miguel, but rather a selective list based on my own personal preferences. Artists in San Miguel who are on a limited budget due to retirement or simply because they are starting out in their careers and don’t have much income are always on the look-out for restaurants that offer good value for the peso.

I grew up in a family that prided itself on good home cooking. My grandparents were immigrants from Southern Italy who had done well for themselves in the US and could afford to eat out but preferred to their own cooking to the cuisine offered by most Italian-American restaurants in their home town of Hartford, Connecticut. They ate well at home during the Great Depression, and passed their expertise on to their six children. My parents continued the traditions. So I am very picky when it comes to eating out and refuse to pay more than I need to for a good meal. I don’t need to sit at a table with a white tablecloth, be served by waiters in white shirts and black bow ties, or need to have a fancy atmosphere with Vivaldi’s “The Four Seasons” playing over the sound system. Just give me good food for a fair price and I’m happy!

As a struggling writer in Montreal in the 1970s, I ate at the many restaurants in the Mile End and St. Denis area that offered wholesome ethnic foods from Eastern Europe as well as the standard French Canadian grub such as bean soup, meat pies, and poutine. I stayed away from anything that resembled the haute cuisine of France for financial as well as dietary reasons.

Okay, so what does San Miguel have to offer in the way of cheap restaurants with good food? Here’s my list:

MEXICAN ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT BUFFETS. These are run by families. The food is home-cooked in the traditional style of real Mexican food. You will usually find chicken or vegetable soup, mole, chicken tinga, pork dishes, eggs, beans and rice, nopales, a fried dish with potatoes, a green salad with many raw veggies, tortillas and a rich pudding for dessert. All you can eat for 65 to 80 pesos per person.

POLLO FELIZ (HAPPY CHICKEN). A national chain that is Mexico’s answer to Colonel Sanders, and much healthier! One-half a barbecued chicken with tortillas for 46 pesos.

LA COMER. A large commercial supermarket with an excellent deli that serves chicken, fish, chile rellenos, various other hot meals as well as many vegetables and rice. Tables for dining are at the front of the store.

EL ITACATE MEXICAN GRILL. Located in SMA’s mall, La Luciernaga, this restaurant has pozole, burgers, flautas, quesadilla, and other traditional foods. Nice atmosphere, friendly staff. Average price: 75 pesos.

CAFÉ MONET. Located on the fringe of Centro, this place has good soups, omelets, sandwiches, meats, and daily specials. Wonderful atmosphere with Victorian-style furniture, many original paintings, and a baby grand piano. Friendly staff. They haven’t raised their modest prices (70 pesos on average) in 8 years.

MANY SMALL RESTAURANTS AND CAFES RUN BY FAMILIES. These eateries are located all over the city and they offer basic home-style fare in a no-frills atmosphere. Mexican equivalent of the American neighborhood coffee shop.  

Back Under the Radar

I am writing this with a pen dipped in acid. I am writing from a hotel in Queretaro, a large city of some sophistication about an hour from San Miguel. I am in Queretaro because I need a break from the glutted San Miguel art scene. Queretaro has plenty of authentic Mexican culture and relatively few gringos. There are too many tourists coming to San Miguel who have no interest in art. The city is overflowing with them. They are arriving by the busload, and they are coming because they read the hype published in high-end travel magazines as well as prestigious publications like Forbes, the New York Times and the LA Times. Starry-eyed travel writers are barking “San Miguel is a gem, an oasis of art, a hipster heaven . . .” blah, blah, blah, like a herd of bull seals. And so we serious artists who are full-time residents are the ones who are suffering the most because our voices are being overpowered by the tourist babble. Enough already. Basta! Let San Miguel have some peace for a change! Let it slide back under the radar, if that’s possible.

Las Damas de Guadalupe

Guadalupe is a family-oriented neighborhood in the north of San Miguel. Many SMA artists live and work there. It is also the location of the best art supply store in the city, El Pato (The Duck), named for the owner's favorite Disney cartoon character. It is adjacent to the Aurora Colonia (neighborhood) which boasts the prestigious Fabrica Aurora gallery center, and has many outdoor murals. This is a painting I did a few years ago representing the women who walk there with their children on their way to and from school or the market.

Leonora Carrington Sculptures in San Miguel

Several large Leonora Carrington sculptures in bronze have recently been installed along the new walkway/bikepath across from Los Pinos between the Mission Hotel and the entrance to the Atascadero neighborhood. Very interesting and worth a bus ride. Originally from England, Carrington lived a colorful life and died in Mexico City in 2011. She was a surrealist and highly prolific as both a painter and sculptor. More info about her at http://www.leocarrington.com/home-pagina-principal-1.html

For those of you who don't live in San Miguel, the backdrop setting for the sculptures is quite striking. Behind them is a scenic view of open fields with a vista of rolling countryside and hazy mountains in the far distance.

NB: The Carrington sculptures have been removed. There are now new bronze sculptures by Mexican artist Jose Luis Cuevas in the same location.

A Lot of Pretentious B-S

The San Miguel art scene is becoming increasingly and incredibly pretentious. People tell me to ignore it. I try, but it's getting harder and harder for me to do that. As the competition grows, so does the newspaper and online advertising and general promotion of events. Posters and handouts are popping up everywhere, and the B-S is flying thick and fast.

This week (February 26-March 4, 2016) we have a gallery opening with a full-page ad in the local newspaper announcing that a guy who is “direct from Miami, Florida” (oooh – so what?) is going to do a live painting of Frida Kahlo (is he going to bring her back from the dead? – that would be worth watching). His style is super glitzy, and we don’t need that kind of art in SMA, so send him back to Miami on the next flight, please.

Then there’s a new play, also announced with a full-page ad that tells us it’s “hilarious and a must-see” (a must-see, what a tiresome cliché). Oh, really? And does anyone else think it’s a bit self serving for the producers or director or whoever wrote the copy for the ad to call it hilarious? Not very objective, is it? Perchance it was the playwright’s mother who called it that?

And to top it off we have a realtor who promotes himself as the guy who will be happy to sell you your “dream home” running an ad using Stephen Spielberg’s photo and his logo with the line “Dream Works”. What does his real estate agency have to do with Hollywood, I wonder? Answer: Nada damn thing. He’s trying to steal some Hollywood glamour, and isn’t it illegal to use a celebrity’s image to sell something without their permission? Watch out there, Mr. Real Estate Agent, you may find yourself in court, or, worse yet, you may not be invited to the Oscars! Heaven forbid!