Three Talented Young Winners of FOFA's Concursos Awarded Prizes from Mexico's National Fund for Culture and the Arts (FONCA)

In 2019, Mexico's National Fund for Culture and the Arts, FONCA, opened a new category within its Creative Youth awards program: Arts and Popular Traditions. This provided a new opportunity for three enormously creative winners of FOFA's past young artists competitions (concursos): Mónica Díaz Martínez, Bëërt Sánchez, and Esperanza Martínez Velasco. While Mónica, Bëërt, and Esperanza had previously applied to FONCA for support, or known about FONCA's support for other areas, this time their unique combination of traditional craft modalities with innovative new design directions "fit the bill" and garnered awards for each of them. With only six awards made in this category nationally, FOFA is very proud that three of them were given to FOFA concurso winners.

The award will provide them with a monthly stipend plus expenses that will allow each of these brilliant young people to dedicate their time to their art, expanding production and exploring new ways to combine the traditional with the innovative.
 
All three are so highly motivated to develop their crafts in original ways that they participated actively in FOFA´s first-ever course on product innovation last year.

They all were excited to learn new theoretical and practical design elements, to start exploring new color combinations and materials, and to apply these techniques to new and expanded kinds of objects. For example, Mónica applied her miniature straw weaving to create lampshades (top photo), and Esperanza created new jewelry using leather combined with silk, an example of which she is modeling here (above).
 
Bëërt applied some of the newfound knowledge to his traditional, more commercial products using new color combinations and designs (left). All of the new products developed by the course participants are spectacular and will soon be showcased in an exhibit to be organized by the course instructors.

For FONCA, each young artist proposed a specific program of artistic production over the one-year award period. Bëërt (five-time FOFA concurso participant since 2008) will produce a thematic collection of six new tapestries plus his winning piece in the 2018 FOFA concurso.Together Bëërt 's pieces will illustrate the entire process of weaving, from carding the wool and mixing the dyes, through all the steps of producing the pieces themselves. Each piece will consist of scenes with both aesthetically pleasing designs and highly realistic figures, a hallmark of his work. To some extent Bëërt is creating a new genre of textile design, a combination of traditional Zapotec weaving joined with eerily beautiful portraits and imagery that defies traditional categorization. He hopes that by creating an opus of seven tapestries around a unifying theme, he will fulfill his dream of exhibiting his pieces in a gallery or museum - and eventually become recognized and accepted as the artistic innovator he truly is, all the while following his passion by living his creative process. The photo above shows Bëërt working on the first of the six new tapestries.
 
A member of a renowned weaving family, from a young age Esperanza (two-time participant in FOFA's 2016 and 2018 concursos) preferred inventing beautiful pieces with discarded cocoons and silk threads. Having established the viability of her craft, she is now thrilled to have the opportunity to experiment further with using different materials in creative designs while continuing to do the work she loves: producing delicate fanciful jewelry using silk threads and silk worm cocoons, colored with natural dyes (to the left). Esperanza and her husband proposed to expand their production of silkworms from the outset of the FONCA project.
 
Subsequently Esperanza will produce a series of necklaces and earrings. Together they have greatly enhanced the presentation of their products with both a new brand - ESMAVE - and simple but elegant boxes in which they present their products. Her work has been so successful that people in her native village - six hours away from Oaxaca city - have begun to copy her designs for resale in town. So, Esperanza knows she needs to keep ahead of the game, innovating and producing even higher quality than before.
 
Mónica , a first-time participant in FOFA's concurso in 2018, states that FOFA changed her life dramatically since, after her win, she quit her day job to dedicate herself entirely to her craft. Having seen that her work is highly appreciated, she dreams of continuing to excel to such an extent that she can help prove that straw weaving is worthy of attention and admiration. Her FONCA project looks back in time and moves forward as well with new products and designs. Mónica plans to write a descriptive catalogue of ancient techniques of straw weaving based on interviews with "grandmothers" from her village and surrounding areas. She will also produce a new collection of necklaces, earrings and bracelets that she hopes will not only be beautiful but also totally natural and sustainable. She has proposed to begin using only natural dyes. Though cochinilla (natural red dye) works very nicely on straw, she still has to find a way of dying the straw with indigo (natural blue dye), and she is excited to collaborate with other textile experts to find ways to do this.
 
All three artists have benefited enormously from their participation with FOFA. Perhaps most importantly and consistently, they all say the support from FOFA has reinforced their self-worth, confidence and self-esteem. As Bëërt so eloquently said: ¨Sometimes I have felt like giving up...but FOFA showed me that what I do is worthwhile...They have helped me continue to believe in my work...If I am not creating, I don´t feel alive." Further, the contacts they have made through the competitions and the catalogue have helped them sell more of their pieces, and also benefit from new friendships and networking. For example, Mónica was invited to create a piece for the exhibit that Linda Hanna (FOFA advisory board member) curated around the theme of the Virgin of Guadalupe. That piece (shown above, with Mónica wearing one of her necklaces and earrings) is now exhibited in the Museum of Popular Cultures in Mexico City. ¨FOFA made me visible," she says. Also, collaborative friendships have grown up among the young FOFA participants, which will surely not only continue to support these marvelous young people in the future, but also end up producing more and more innovations as they share ideas and techniques.


Copy and photos by Lucille Atkin.
Please consider supporting FOFA's ongoing efforts to enable talented young Oaxacan folk artists to achieve their dreams and maintain sustainable livelihoods. For a comprehensive look at FOFA's programs, visit our website at:   www.fofa.us



Thank you!

www.fofa.us 718-859-1515 [email protected]  275 Central Park West, #1-C  New York, New York 10024