Tuesday, July 28, 2015
Zapata Vive!: A printmaker's gift from Mizael Contreras
It was a very good day when I found a mailing tube from Querétaro in my mailbox and it was adorned with three very large and gorgeous Mexican postal stamps.
Querétaro is a wonderful old colonial city, the capital of the state of the same name, and a wine-and-cheese center in the highlands northwest of Mexico City. I've been fortunate to have had the chance to taste some wonderful wines from the region, and I have long promised myself to make it some day to the annual wine and cheese festival in neighboring Tequisquiapan. My brain was swimming with great memories of former travels as I pried the cap off the mail tube.
What I found inside is a real treat!
It's a very beautifully made limited-edition print combining an intaglio background and stenciled overlay. The print declares itself to be Zapata, though I don't believe the image is really that of the famous revolutionary guerilla warrior, Emiliano Zapata, who always wore a heavy black mustache. The print image area is approximately 8.5 inches square on a 12x16" hand-torn sheet of fine printmaking paper. A real treat and a genuine treasure!
I have met Mizael through the printmakers group (Press and Roll) on the Iuoma-Ning platform. He wrote me some time back asking if I would be interested in exchanging prints. Now he has set a very high standard, and I had best come up with some fine printmaking to return the generous favor.
Muchas gracias, Mizael! Watch your mailbox!
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Hello Dan, thanks for your kind words.
ReplyDeleteOn the matter of the person depicted, I would like to say that it's not Emiliano Zapata, but an anonymous indigenous from the Zapatista movement on the south east region of Mexico.
Best regards, Mizael C.