SAN DIEGO (NEWS 8) - One of the country’s most extensive collections of authentic Latin American folk art returns to San Diego during Bazaar del Mundo’s annual Latin American Festival and Mata Ortiz Pottery Market, Friday–Sunday, August 3-5.
More than 25 artists from Mexico, Peru, Guatemala and Ecuador and other Latin American countries will take center stage to display their vibrant creations, including colorful wood-carvings of whimsical creatures, handwoven wool Zapotec rugs, hand-embroidered Mexican blouses and dresses, hand-painted pottery and ceramics, dazzling jewelry and more.
Throughout the marketplace, festival-goers will enjoy live demonstrations as artists carve wooden stumps to reveal life-like animal figures; weave hand-pulled and dyed wool into beautiful, traditionally designed area rugs; and skillfully paint delicate designs onto hand-formed clay pots, sculpted figures and animals.
Returning to this year’s festival are Jacobo and Maria Angeles, Oaxacan wood carvers whose traditional alebrijes (Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures) were recently featured in Disney’s much-celebrated animated film, “Coco,” for which Jacobo was one of the movie’s consultants. Visitors will delight as Jacobo performs his fast, methodical demonstrations of transforming blocks of wood into life-like creatures, then he and wife Maria bring the animals to life with intricately painted designs using natural, mineral-based paints that they grind by hand.