Oaxacan Motifs

Several years ago, my husband and I traveled to Oaxaca to see this rich cultural area of Mexico known for two major groups of indigenous people: the Zapotecs and the Mixtecs. Mitla is the town built by the Zaptotecs around 100 AD. One of its noted features are the geometric decorations that can be found on stone walls and door frames. I have always been intrigued by these decorations that were created by fitting together thousands of polished stones without mortar. I took many pictures of these decorations so that I use them to create interesting motifs for my art cloth. Last year, I started experimenting with one of these wall decorations.

Using a Canvas 11, a vector based program, I traced the major motif and then began experimenting with combing groups of them. The first motif I created was just a simple rotation of this element.

Then I tried combing several of these motifs to form a more interesting one.

Next I created a more intricate motif by repeating the basic one and also adding a truncated version of the original design element.

Basically this was created by flipping and rotating the various smaller pieces. Today, I returned to these designs and added one more.

These were printed and silk screens produced with my thermofax machine. I am really excited about using these on some scarves. Since tomorrow I have to get ready for an art sale this weekend, I may have to wait until Monday. I will just have to see how my day goes.