from Xalapa
15th - 30th August 2018, I have stayed at the La Ceiba Grafica, Xalapa, Mexico as an artist-in-residence.
15th August Wednesday
My my wife and I checked out the hotel in the Mexico city. She will go back to Tokyo, but I will move to the Xalapa. I said "good-bye" to her, then I took a taxi to go to the bus terminal TAPO by alone.
It took about 4.5 hours to arrive to Xalapa friom Mexico city. I took a express bus. Actually I had a bad backache 2 days ago, so I worried about sitting on the seat for a long while. But it didn't so hard.
The bus reached to Xalapa at about 4 pm. Sasai-san & Okumura-san kindly picked me up from the bus terminal to the La Ceiba Grafica. I finaly arrived at there. The atmosphere of the studio wase quite nice, but empty. The staff Laura showed me some separate studios, my guest room, how to use the kitchen and so on.
Sasai-san, Okumura-san and I went to the restaurant to have a dinner in near the town. After the dinner, we went to the supermarket to buy some Japanese foods, rice, noodle, soysorce for me. Thank you so much for your support, Okumura-san and Sasai-san.
16th August Thursday
I slept well last night. The condition of my body was gradually getting better. Sasai-san kindly brought some fruites, rice cooker, miso soup paste for me. We took a walk around the neighbors together. It was clear blue sky although a bit strong sunshine. We dropped by very small market shop. I bought sliced ham and a can of tuna. And we also dropped by very small laundry shop. I asked women to wash my dirty cloths a lot. She said the cost is only 20 peso. The people who lives there knowed Sasai-san a little. They were almost friendly, and wanted to chat together. That was nice atmosphere like a country side.
We went to the paper making studio of a part of La Ceiba. Mr. Per explained about making paper for a long while. He is a good resercher of the paper making include the Japanese paper. He planted many Kozo tree in the garden. He also made press mashine, printmaking tools and so on. He was a real great master.
In the kitchen, Marce cooked typical Mexican food for us. It was really hand-made natural taste. The kitchen looks like a traditinal one. The residency artist can cook here. At about 3 pm, I saw that 4 young artists were cooking there. It was hard for me to talk by Spanish, so I hesiteted to join them. But I thought it was a good timing to have a frienship. I remembered the fruits which Sasai-san gave me in the morning. I cut the watermelon to serve for them, and I said, " Can I join?" Then I could talk with them by English well. That was a nice try for me to be a sociable man. Benito asked me Japanese food, for example persimmon"kaki" and blowfish"fugu".
I could connect to the Internet finally. I noticed my wife's LINE message. It said she arrived at the Narita airport safe and sound. I was really relieved.
17th August Friday
In the morning, Marce cocked typical Mexican foods also today. It was spicy dish grilled by chicken meat and vegetable with rice. Delicious!
Finally I met Rafael. He was a directer of La Ceiba. His son got a sick recently. so he didn't come here for a few days. He started to talk my exhibition. I showed my print works to him first. Then he said, "Let's start to set up these work." After that, Maruco came to the gallery to help me soon. The situation changed quickly. Maybe until tomorrow, we will finish to put my works on the gallery's wall by magnet. I carried many prints from Tokyo. Actually it was really heavy, but it was not enough for the gallery space.
Sasai-san and I went to 凸 printing room in this studio. The master, Antonio was a nice gentleman. I asked him to make my name card. It will finish until next Tuesday. i can't wait!
18th August Saturday
Marco and I started to put my prints on the wall at around noon. We used many magnets. That is a simple and easy way to show the printmaking recently. But there were a lot of prints here, so it was not so easy. We had only one coffee break, we continued working until 5 pm. Marco was very honest and nice. We talked a lot during working. We finally finished our mission. I appriciated him very much, so I presented a remake Hokusai's "Ukiyo-e Mokuhanga" for him. It was suitable for him, because he was a teacher of Mokuhanga workshop in La Ceiba.
19th August Sunday
Okumura-san came to La Ceiba to pick me up in the morning with Sasai-san. They invited me to come to Xalapa which he lived for 30 years. At first we visited food market. Much people were walking there. I tried taste the cuctus fruit. I was afraid of wrong taste, but it was nice. But a lot of seeds remained in my mouth. I had to keep them for long while. Next we visited the science museum. There were a few giant stone heads and a lot of stone figure sculpture big or small ones. Some of them had very unique shape and face. They were sometimes laughing, praying and dancing. I loved them. We went to the grilled meat restaurant to have a lunch. It looks bit expensive. I told them before I was very afraid of diarrhea from the Mexican water. So they chose high quality restaurant. We order salad, typical soup, grilled meat, tortilla and beers. All of them were really dericious! I drunk 2 bottles of Mexican beer. After that we visited art museum and 2 galleries. Gallries were supported from the local government or university a little. Okumuta-san will have a solo exhibition there from next month. At the last, we walked around the Xalapa. There were steep slopes a lot. I thought the scenery of the town were beautiful for the up and down. We enterd survenier shop. I found many unique wooden animal figures. I bought a aluminum case and a beads animal for coworkers. Also we entered the church. At that time, Mass was keeping inside. I saw big wooden Christ schlpture was on the alter. I have never seen such an alter before.
I enjoyed Xalapa sightseeing. I also had to appreciate them again today.
20th August Monday
I concentrated my work, Benito's portarait all day long. I didn't do etching for a long while. I asked Marco about Ferric Corroide, how to buy papers and so on. I noticed the color of Ferric Corroide was pale. I thought someone added a lot of water in it. But Marco said it will be work, because a Brazilian used it just a few days ago. He also showed me solid Ferric Corroide. So I understood. They were made by solid one plus water. It's color must be different.
Rafael gave me my exhibition's small posters and post cards. The opening will be next Saturday, 25th. I am getting to be excited. The other hand I had still backake because of the stress.
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21st August Tuesday
I finnised Benito's portrait. Then I started Gaby's one.
In the evening, Okumura-san, Sasai-san and I went to opening party in Xalapa. The gallery was new and modern. It was crowded by many visitors. Okumura-san and Sasai-san met their friends of artist and chatted with them many times. I passed my exhibition card for the visitors as an advertisement. That was a good thing, because I had a timing to start chatting with them.
After that we went to the tacos restaurant. The taste was quite delicious. I am getting to fit to the Mexican food.
In the night, other residency artists and I drunk together in the kitchen. We drunk wine and tequila and chated about a lot of things for a long while. Benito was a young energetic man. He always talked joke. That was funny. There were 2 Mexicans, Laura and Benito, one Argentina, Gaby, one French, Jurry(?) and one Japanese. We talked Spanish, French and English. It was nice international situation, right? I searved dried squid"sakiika" for them. I tried to drink tequila 2 centimeters in a cup. It was 42% alchole included, but I felt easy to drink. Oh dengerous! I was very happy to chat with young artists until the midnight.
22nd August Wednesday
Sasai-san and I walked around Coatepec town for a while. Coatepec was next to La Ceiba. We dropped by town market, church, local government office and so on. We visited bakery which was made by firewood. It was really traditional inside, sooty roof. I bought a few breads. They are so delicious. We also dropped by popular coffee bean shop. It was a bit expencive compare to the other shop. We tasted some coffee, then bought many coffee beans for the survenier. Actually here were center of the coffee plants.
In the La Ceiba, Sasai-san cooked "Udon"noodle. She prepared not only noodle but also big bowl, chopstick and spring onion. We felt comfortable to suck the hopt soup very much. Unnn, that was Japanese. I always wanted to eat Japanese food when I stayed in the foreign country.
23rd August Thursday
We ate corn and chicken stew in the morning. I worked all day long. I printed Benito's and Gaby's portraits. And I started Laura's one today. I showed it to Gaby, but her reaction was not so good. But I liked this work.
Benito, Jerry and I went out side to have a dinner after working. It was almost around 8 pm. We went to small restaurant first, but it was closed. We went to other a kind of stand to eat tacos. I was a bit afraid of that situation, but tacos was good taste. A few dogs were walking in the night.
24th August Friday
Okmura-san, Sasai-San and I went to the concert tonight. The Veracruz Universitay had own orchestra, music hall and so on. Okumura-san made concert hall's inside wall 2 years ago. That was amazing job. What a huge scale! The piled up white stones are sich a beautiful! Actually the concert was really nice. We were inspired much. The conducter moved energetic and sometimes it looked funny for me. At the last, all players standed and played a kind of tipical birthday song. Amaging!
25th August Saturday
Today we had 2 opening, one was a kind of photos & music such an insterlation, the other one was my solo exhibition in La Ceiba. I also maneged my mezzotint workshop in the intaglio studio. 7 participants joined us, included Benito and Marco. We continue to leran mezzotint technique today and tomorrow all day long. They were almost so serious to work mezzotint. A few peoples came from Mexico city. I suggested to complete 2 types mezzotint small work. One was a ordinaly technique, the other was using cutter knife. I worried that was too much work for 2 days. Because it was really hard to lock the mezzotint surface of the copper plate at the first.
In the evening, opening started. A lot of visiter came. Okumura-san brought a bottle of tequila for me. It was fruity and good quality. I had a lot of oppotunities to chat with friends, staff, young artist from Xalap and so on. That was always comfortable time, and then I felt very happy. That was the reason why I sometimes came to the foreign studio.
26th August Sunday
My workshop continued today. People were locking for a long time. I know they must be hard. They concentrated their work very much, so I didn't talked to them so much today. We went to the outside to have a lunch together. There was private small restaurant only for reservation. The tipical Mexical dishes are so delicious here. Today we ate steamed fish wraped a kind of leaf, cucumber juice and salad. In the evening we finished work shop, but some participants couldn't finished their work well. We also went to the diffent restaurant after that. A perticipant said to me the workshop were too short. We needed at least 3 days, because the locking time was so long. Maybe I asked them too much. I should think about their situation more. I regretted that.
27th August Monday
Okumura-san invited us to come his studio. Marco drove us to go there with Benito, Luise(?), Sasai-san and me from La Ceiba. We went to the country side of Xalapa near the hill. We could see horses, cows and chicken were walking. His studio stood on the slope of the hill. It was beautiful mountain landscape around there. He also had a dog and a few chickens. It looked the time flew slowly. His was a sculptor, so he needed wide studio. He guided his studio for us. It was impressive. We went to the restaurant to eat river fish. It was next to the river in the gully near the studio. The dishes must be delicious.
28th August Tuesday
I finished Laura's portrait finally. In the evening, Okumura-san, Sasai-san, Benito and I went to Studio. Sasai-san maneged that for me. He was popular artist in Mexico nowadays. At the same time, it was suddenly squall. It didn't stop soon. On the way to the studio, it was a flood on the road everywhere. His studio stood on the top of the hill. We went inter to the ceramic studio first. It was well organized. He invited us to the living room at the last. It was nice atmosphere. He showed us his work from ealier to lately one by PC. His style of work change some times. I prefer his earlier work. They were quite interested.
We were back to La Ceiba. I presented a sheet of "Ukiyo-e" for Benito. He also had a knowledge of Mokuhanga. We talkd about wood cut engraving, Hosusai and so on. He looked like a kind of "Chimpira", but he was a young clever artist I thought.