Verónica Castillo
The Trees of Life are unique pieces that demonstrate a grand evolution of expression that has its own language, dialogue, wisdom, symbolism, justice and love of life. This Exhibit is very important to me because I am paying homage to the Grand Maestros of the popular art work called El Árbol de La Vida. From the beginning to the evolution of the work, the Árbol de La Vida is constructed as it once was using the same material, clay, and natural paints created with berries, small cuttings, insects and soil.

For many El Árbol de La Vida is considered simple folk art or rustic ceramics. However, this is not the case in this exhibit. All beginnings have historical memory that nurtures and also serves as an inspiration for many Great Maestros, blending two cultures.

Ultimately, I am fortunate to have inherited the beautiful technique of polychromatic ceramics or Tree of Life. As a 4th generation, I owe a debt of gratitude to my ancestors, my great grandfather Simon Orta; my grandmother, Catalina Orta; to my Maestro and father, Alfonso Castilla Orta, and my mentor and mother, Soledad Martha Hernández Baez.

As you leave this exhibition, you will carry in your mind and heart a greater appreciation of our one life, one planet, where we can harmonize our paths, thoughts, or ideas to protect Mother Earth. No longer will our art be labeled “artisan,” “minor art,” or simply “popular”.

Kathy Sosa
Usually expressed as three-dimensional folk art, Trees of Life have grown in popularity in Mexico over the past century. Mexican Trees of Life are most often ceramic, and vary widely from the rustic to the exquisitely artful. Thematically, they frequently center on Creation, or celebrate the history of a particular familia, tracing it back to a certain pair of ancestors, if not all the way back to Adam and Eve. The nativity is popular as well, but when one looks a little deeper, Trees of Life can be found on a myriad of topics… from the totally traditional to the unbelievably unorthodox.

My current series of paintings interprets the Tree of Life two-dimensionally and with a contemporary edge. The paintings depict modern women integrated with Trees of Life. Influenced as well by 18th and 19th Century Spanish and Mexican portraiture, iconic religious images and masks, they are elaborate with ornamentation. Inspired by popular art, the intended effect is quirky and unpretentious. Some people see them as headdresses, others see them as crowns, and they have elements of both, but in essence each tree is a thought bubble, incorporating a set of thematic figures that represent what the woman is thinking, or obsessing about at the imagined moment.