Margarita's Visiting Mexican Folk Artists Program

by Pat Picciano

Margaritas Education Outreach Coordinator

For the past 15 years Margaritas Mexican Restaurants in New England have been sponsoring visiting artists from Mexico to demonstrate traditional crafts to students in schools located near their restaurants in the New England states. The regional chain restaurant collaborates with over 20 craft families and small workshops that provide their furnishings and décor. Everything from the chairs and tiled table tops to hand forged chandeliers and over sized papeir mache sculptures are made by artisans in the craft communities around Guadalajara.

During our trips to Mexico searching for traditional folk art and unique crafts we meet with the artists themselves. The towns of Tlaquepaque and Tonala are located just outside of Guadalajara. Both towns were settled by ancient tribes hundreds of years before the arrival of the Spanish Conquistadores. The those ancient artisans mined the local clay that was abundant and have contributed to the variety of ceramic techniques that are still practiced today.  Tonala alone can boast five different types of ceramic techniques that are still produced by artisan families.

Recently, ceramic artists Gerardo Ortega and Gabriela Mena, a husband and wife team from the Tonala suburb of Santa Cruz de las Huertas visited Margaritas restaurants and met with thousands of students through their lectures and demonstrations featuring their hand painted clay sculptures. The folk artists were a perfect fit for the program since many schools have low-fired clay in their art rooms and art teachers from all grade levels expose their students to ceramic techniques.

Gerardo Ortega is famous for his whimsical clay figures that are fired in his wood fueled kiln and then painted with acrylic paints. He and his brothers along with other family members represent the fourth generation of family members to produce the clay figures using the “barro betus” technique. Barro is Spanish for clay and betus refers to the pine resin that was used to protect the aniline dyes that were painted on top of the fired ceramic figures.

During their daylong visit with students, Gerardo and Gabriela created their popular clay roosters in front of groups of combined classes of students. Gerardo rolled out a slab of clay and formed it on top of a clay mold that resembled the body of a rooster. Next he rolled two coils of clay, these would become the legs. They were attached to the body using clay slip. After the clay dried briefly, Gerardo sliced a vertical opening and removed the simple clay form from inside the body of the rooster. Slip was applied to the two seams and they were sealed shut, thus providing a hollow cavity for the body of the rooster. Rolling out more clay, Gerardo turned the coils into tail feathers that were attached to the body. Next he formed the beak and crown using fresh clay. The rooster was attached to a flat clay base using slip applied to the bottom of the legs. Finally, three claws were added to the legs, which completed the sculpture and added extra stability to the piece.

Students were not only exposed to Gerardo’s clay building technique throughout the school day; his wife Gabriela painted a previously bisque fired rooster with bright acrylic paints. By the time the two folk artists finished meeting with all the students, they had assembled a handy before and after display that remained with the school art teacher. Since the clay rooster was made with low fire earthenware, the dried piece was fired later at cone 05. The painted rooster would remain as a gift for the school and a sample of Mexican folk art that would be used to inspire follow up activities.

A School Visit

In November 2014 Gerardo Ortega and his wife came to Fitzgerald School in Waltham, MA to demonstrate to the fourth and fifth graders the art of hand building with clay. The students watched as Gerardo built a rooster using a clay form and added details to it. The students asked questions and some were able to use their native language, Spanish, to communicate with Señor Ortega. While Gerardo Ortega built with clay Senora Ortega painted the bisque fired pieces in colorful colors using acrylic paints.

The students at Fitzgerald Elementary School were very excited to begin their own hand built clay sculptures after having the Ortegas at the school. Students drew a plan first on paper of how they would transform a coil or pinch pot into an animal, since they did not have a body form to start with. Mrs. Walsh, their art teacher, demonstrated how to create a coil pot or a pinch pot to start off their animal pots and creatures. The students were then required to add characteristic details of their animal onto the pot by using the slip and score method, as they had seen Gerardo Ortega do when he added pieces to his rooster.

Students had watched a video of where the Ortegas were from and how they used a handmade brick kiln to fire their clay pieces. Mrs. Walsh explained to the students that the school has an industrial kiln and would fire our clay pieces in a bisque fire first. Since the students have access to glazes, Mrs. Walsh had the students glaze their sculptures, instead of painting with the acrylic paints. After glazing their animal pots and creatures the pots were re-fired in a glaze firing.

Sandra Walsh, Art Specialist K-5, Fitzgerald Elementary School, Waltham, MA