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Worth Flying For
T
he wooden owl’s eyes entranced me. Every inch
of the creature was intricately patterned, but the
swirls around his eyes made him look somehow
alive. I had come to San Martín Tilcajete, just
outside the city of Oaxaca, in search of alebrijes,
copal-wood fi gurines painted with elaborate Zapotec
designs. María and Jacobo Ángeles are the undisputed
masters of the craft, their carvings sought by
museums and art collectors. The exterior of their
workshop, on a dirt road at the edge of town, was an
explosion of riotous colour, with bougainvillea
bursting into bloom and apprentices painting in the
courtyard. One young man cradled a two-foot dragon
in his lap as he painstakingly brushed colour onto
its horns: the red dye made from cochineal beetles,
the yellow from pomegranate rinds.An apprentice showed me around the workshop.
Alebrijes, he told me, are inspired by the tonas,
Zapotec animal guardians that correspond with
the calendar, much like the zodiac. I spotted the owl,
awash with oceanic blues and rusty oranges. I turned
him over and over, marvelling at the colours.
I climbed a staircase, and there in the studio stood
María, studying a three-foot-tall anatomical heart she
had just begun to paint. “Spend some time,” she said.
“You must get to know the animals.” As I perused
the last few rooms of the workshop, my guide pulled
a well-worn tona calendar from his pocket and asked
my birth date. El buho, he said. The owl. I went back
to retrieve the one I’d seen before. I named him
Martín, and stared into his spiral eyes the whole
way home. tilcajete.org — CAREY JONESPAINTED WOOD CARVINGS by
JACOBO & MARÍA ÁNGELES
in SAN MARTÍN TILCAJETE, MEXICO
Illustration by Kim Sielbeck