Woman on Oaxacan Street

“Woman on Oaxacan Street” - watercolor, gouache and graphite on 300# paper. 4”x8”. I was taking photos on the street while walking and picked this one to paint. After starting the painting I kept seeing the same woman walking about town. You start noticing people that live in the neighborhood when you stick around for awhile.

Traveling and Art are interesting bedfellows. They simultaneously compliment and contradict one another.

Both help you to see the world anew: Travel plunges you into new environments. While Art helps you to codify the new perspectives, which could lie anywhere from the exotic to the mundane. (Specifically, I am talking about doing oservational Art while traveling.)

First….who has time for it!? Aren’t you missing out on a lot of amazing stuff….?

Well, yes, but I can get overwhelmed with endless sight seeing. It gives me time to reflect and unpack the density of a single moment, which can easily get lost in the millions of moments we navigate daily.

Also doing Art on sight, en plein air, gives one the opportunity to not only observe a place, but commune with it. It is a very different activity than say, camera clicking or shopping or food consuming, which are all great, but I quickly get my fill, and just want to create in a new environment.

I know of no better way of being present for an extended period of time.

But aren’t you also dissassociating by focusing so much on creating something?……maybe, but the opposite is true as well. I am taking time to absorb something rather than just zooming by.

It also brings the world to me. People stop and look at what I’m doing. I notice how things change around me as I work. I feel a part of the fabric of a place.

Lastly, as time passes, and the trip is long over, having the artwork on the wall or on this blog is an incredible reminder. The level of engagement creating it cements the trip so much deeper than any photo ever has (for me).

That’s it for now. We return to the States on Friday. I have so much more to share about Oaxaca, and will in the next post. Museums, Markets, Giant trees, a Wedding, Archeolgical sites and a teacher strike!. It is kind of overwheling…….That’s why I focused on doing a watercolor of a woman walking down the street.

moodysteffon@gmail.com

The Tule Tree - The largest Tree in the world (girth-wise) . it was surrounded by fencing to protect it, which does not allow you to undersatnd the scale in relation to a human. You see the one fairly distinct knot near the bottom on the right? The top of the knot is my head height. The tree was twice as big as I expected it to be. It’s over 2000 years old, and the birds love it.