Malik Watkins's Bloglines

We can’t talk about Art, Mexico, and Frida without Diego and his association/contribution to both. According to Hayden Herrera, Rivera and the crew functioned from the perspective that ‘Mexican art “is great because it surges from the people; it is collective and our own aesthetic is to socialize artistic expression..” ….

“To move away from the ultra-intellectual and the aristocratic…to make it tell the story of the people”…versus…the story of oneself or just ones personal image…Taking the walk through Mexico City, the works, murals, of Diego Rivera and his students represent this surge…telling the story not of an organization, an institution, or a government…but, if you look closely…the plight of the people….

Not long ago, my yogini took me through an exercise to further develop my yoga. She had me imagine that I was climbing a mountain…but, also in climbing…imagining the rigor, the obstacles, the exhaustion, the effort…and the crescendo…the feeling of getting to the top…and then at the crest…she had me focus my imagination on that feeling of being there…

Standing there…I could feel the wind against me…on my eyes, the open space, life’s existence and opportunity for expansion, every sound was subtle but with depth…my senses responded to feeling verses something easily identified as if it were buoying me in an elevated place, and the recognition of the horizon was a reminder that more was there…the overarching them was freedom and oneness with the reality of everything…even the limitless…

A feeling I’ve had before…Mt. Bromo or Tanah Lot in Indonesia, Monseratte in Columbia, Valle y Sierra Vinales in Cuba, or Las Montanas of the Pacific Coast Highway…the same as those moments when insight into the nature of the human story…rises to provide equivalents.

Do we ever ponder, how do we see ourselves? Can we recognize the limitless? Or are our lives caught up in the self-created grandeur of our own delusions. Whether we go with the mimesis that art imitates life or vice-versa…still, there is that existential question…Who am I? Who are you? Art? Life? Can I see myself within it? How do I see myself?

All questions we have to ask and then answer for ourselves!! It is necessary, if we want to grow, to step outside of ourselves…and as mentioned by Berger in ‘Ways of Seeing’….consider the lives of others and how we relate…how this relation helps to define who we are…particularly if this art surges from the people…their life stories are told. But, as with art…you can have your interpretation…

In your interpretation, don’t forget the significance of the history being shown in the murals…the labor, inclusion of the natural order (nature), the moneyed-haves, the exploitation and suffering, some of the basis of revolts and revolutions…

Despite hard times, the travails and vicissitudes…those amongst them representing other interests…. Being able to endure, the strength of the collective, the mutual support…the weakness of one being made up by the strength of the other…

Regardless to the insertion of technological advancements or the broader global economic dynamics, shifts of governmental intent…the community was collectively resilient…

And, the natural order endures…it prevails…

And, never forgetting the collective ‘Soy Porque Somos’….’I am because we are’….

This journey in Mexico was absolutely astounding with depth and meaning…some of it mentioned, but most between the lines!! I have one more post I would like to share on CDMX; however, this trip was penetrating enough that I am going to pull a quick turnaround and return in short order. So back to CDMX quite soon, and then I’ll post a few things about being around Ciudad de Mexico!! Amigos!! Nos Vemos!! 🙂