Week 1. A Song from Home

Retablo, Ahualulco, San Luís Potosí, México, n.d.

First project, based on a song from home--that is, a song from where you come from. (Remember my query on the application-- Where were you born? Where did you grow up?) Not necessarily easy questions. Something you heard as a child, perhaps--say from your grandmother, or from an aunt. Or one of your uncles, playing the guitar in another room. A key to what a song is in your imagination. And at the same time, something specific in terms of objects and images--cultural references. Time is important, too. When was the song from? When did you hear it first? Tell us about the song trail...

Put all of this into your work...

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Note on the image: Retablos are votive images, painted on tinned metal,  from México (and other places in the Americas, and the American Southwest)--works made in thanks for a miracle granted, that is, painted in gratitude. Here for a herd of lost goats, saved from danger. The artist (a local retablo painter?) likely made this painting on commission. The person who requested it (someone named María Ysabel Losano) would have taken the finished retablo by pilgrimage to the church of the patron saint (here San Francisco de Asís)... perhaps la Iglesia de San Francisco de Asís en Real de Catorce, San Luís Potosí...

"Hasta hoy, no sólo en México, sino en todo el mundo, es conocida la fama milagrosa de la imagen de San Francisco de Asís, que se venera en la legendaria Ciudad de Real de Catorce, y a cuya imagen los devotos le han dado en llamar por cariño "El Charrito". Está claro que a esa imagen, originalmente se le rindió culto ...  Durante todos los días del año, llegan a Real de Catorce, en autobuses, automóviles o a pie, una gran cantidad de personas para visitar la imagen de San Francisco de Asís, y  pedirle los ayude a resolver sus problemas o para sanar sus males, en el interior del templo, existe una gran cantidad de retablos y en diferentes formas, las gracias que regresan a darle por los favores recibidos, aumentando con ello su fe hacia San Francisco de Asís, venerado en la legendaria Ciudad de Real de Catorce.  (http://www.realdecatorce.info/sitio/es/san-francisco-de-asis.html)