Be Creative...

      San Miguel de Allende is a very creative place. It began growing as an artist's community back in the 1950s, attracting people like Jack Kerouac, Neil Cassady, and Alan Ginsburg. My mother moved here in the seventies to pursue creative freedom.  I was asked to design a mural for a foundation I'm working with, called "Books without Borders" or Libros Sin Fronteras in Spanish. We establish small libraries of reading books for children in rural schools. Often the only books these boys and girls will see are textbooks. They are unaware of the joys of reading for enjoyment. As a consequence, many of them never really become entirely literate and lack the skills they need to face the challenges of higher education.

    So I set about trying to create a simple design for a wall mural.

Here's the finished result.

As I walked from my house to this section of town, I took a few photos of the local graffiti art in the barrio near the school where my design was painted. This is around the corner from the school...

This was painted yesterday by young artists who formed part of a festival called, "Muros en Blanco." They were invited by business owners to paint different walls in the Colonia Guadalupe.

This one's been around for a while...

Here's a portrait of San Miguel...

Meanwhile, in the central square, ladies ply their wares and sell scarves to the tourists.

Here's a comment on the mechanistic nature of our fragmented society...

An older mural in front of an organic foods store....

A newer mural next to a watch repair shop.

Sometimes It's hard to avoid the feeling that we're all being watched....

These were painted by the owner of this restaurant: an eatery offering indigenous Oaxacan cuisine...

That's all for now. Stay creative. See you all soon.