another eye opens

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It really is true that Mexican culture acknowledges death more openly than others — Day of the Dead is practically their Fourth of July. You see skulls and skeletons everywhere: the sign for the men’s room (top), garage walls (middle), all kinds of art work (bottom).

We checked out Fabrica Aurora, a former factory that now houses art galleries, antique stores, and cafes.

Public art everywhere — David Kestenbaum’s bull is a landmark, but down any alley you’re likely to discover a mural on Sancho Panza Lane or Via Organica.

I loved the cruddy storefronts and the half-finished, now-abandoned hotel just outside the center of town.

Giuliano (above center) likes San Miguel de Allende so much he bought a house there — he and Stanley live in Sonoma County, California, but will probably be spending more time in Mexico in the years to come.

Andy was under the weather for the first few days but finally got the mole negro of his dreams.

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Someone I know had dismissed San Miguel de Allende as “Gringo Gulch” but praised the next town over, Guanajuato, as “the most beautiful place in Mexico.” I don’t know about that, but it is a very different environment — absolutely not thronged with gringos, lots of tourists but from all over Mexico. A much more local experience.

Mercado Hidalgo

The houses are often painted in bright colors, a wider palette even than in SMDA.

It was overcast when we arrived, so a little subdued.

Later, the sun came out and we got the rainbow spectrum.

Meanwhile, we took in a lot of art — the Diego Rivera Museum (in the house where he lived with Frida Kahlo)…

and the Museum of Contemporary Art, small but packed with some good stuff.

“Electro Encephalo Sax V” by Jazzamoart

“Untitled,” pencil drawing by Eiki Ito

small painting by my favorite artist on display, Javier Hernandez, aka Capelo

lunch at a very local place

A tip from our mutual friend Stephen Silha led to visiting Casa de las Ranas (House of Frogs), the compound presided over by Radical Faerie outsider artist Anado McLauchlin. He lives and works in a small town just outside San Miguel de Allende. Every building on the property — the studio where he works, the Chapel of Jimmy Ray Gallery where he shows his work and that of others, the house where he lives with his husband Richard Schultz, even the public toilet (speaking of Going to The Chapel) — is covered top to bottom, inside and out, with colorful mosaics and found-object collages. The work is fun, witty, open-hearted, sacred, and beautiful, as naive as Howard Finster and as sophisticated as Lucas Samaras. We took the tour with two young Frenchmen and a woman from Guadalajara, just a few days before the gallery premiered “Conversations in Vision: A Two-Man Show,” featuring one room of work by Anado and one room completely revisioned, repainted, and inhabited by a young Mexican artist named Agustin Santoyo.

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the front gate

Anado and Richard

The Gate to Nowhere (a few yards away from The Gate to Now Here)

The Chapel of Jimmy Ray Gallery (named after Anado’s beloved father)

Andy’s favorite work of Anado’s in the show is the free-standing figure known as “Suerte (Luck)”

my favorite was “Preacherman”

Agustin was just finishing the custom-painted backgrounds for his artwork

the snazziest outhouse in the universe

a smaller gallery displays older works such as “Be a Fool Unto Thyself”

their home is a trip

check out the kitchen

work-in-progress: along the garden wall, Anado is creating a long mosaic mural based on the Tarot deck

Anado used to live in the East Village, and within five minutes we’d identified at least five mutual friends — O Teeny-Tiny World!

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what we left behind

with our hosts Stanley and Giuliano

with the artist Anado McLauchlin

what we came back to