Last Sunday, December 14th, Craig Downs and I were honored to welcome the community of San Pancho to La Casita Mágica for a grand opening fiesta.
We barely made it ourselves, as we were both fairly fried from the weeks of work leading up to our opening night. In fact, we were still working during the hour preceding the announced start time.
We dressed in record time, abandoning some of the costume flourishes we had planned, but Craig had time to don his top hat and brocade vest and cowboy boots, and I had time to spray my hair pink. We arrived after a few of our early guests, but that was fine, as Lidia, Waldo, Glenda, Seida, Glenn, Wayne, Phil and Hilloah were already on site and ready for action.
As the sun slipped into the ocean, the guests began arriving: from the beach, from their homes and places of business, from the neighboring towns of Sayulita and Lo de Marcos, in cars and golf carts, by bicycle and on foot. In moments, we had a full house and a populated patio.
Our guests went in and out, looking at the art in the casita, enjoying food and champagne, and visiting the Sculpture Garden. I must admit that Craig and I are overjoyed at our sculpture garden. It came together in a marvelous way, starting with the loan of two elegant horse heads lent to us by La Patrona Polo Club of San Pancho until their new facility is ready.
Now, these horse heads are made of concrete and were sculpted out in the jungle a good way out of town. They're nearly four feet tall and weigh a ton. Not literally a ton, but a lot. So how, you might wonder, did they end up at the beach end of San Pancho's main street?
Fortunately, our friend Hadley was in exactly the right place at exactly the right time and managed to get this excellent photo of The Delivery.
I was out on my rounds and just made it to the gallery to take these photos of the placement of the heads in the garden.
Obviously, it was no easy task. The man in the green shoes is the sculptor, César Licona.
Over the next few days, César brought us more of his work to sell at the gallery, including his Mayan estellas.
He also brought us his full-size horse made entirely of horseshoes, which is on display just across the street in the Tercer Mundo entrance to La Playa restaurant.
César chose La Casita Mágica as his exclusive gallery, as did Lonney Ford, who is showing three of his sculptures in the garden and two of his paintings in the casita.
Here are Lonney's Sock Monkeys in Their Natural Habitat and The Mexican Airforce.
Sally Shapiro, an award-winning bronze sculptor of San Pancho and Sacramento, is also showing exclusively in Mexico at La Casita Mágica. Her evocative sculpture The First Ten Seconds of Grief is formed of palm, coconut, and fabric and is her first work in this south-of-the-border medium.
Inside the casita itself, Craig did a stellar job of hanging the paintings by our wonderful opening selection of artists.
On the left are Craig's works, then the oils of Jim Starkey and the giclée prints by Evelyne Boren.
On the wall beside a jubilant Craig, in the antique frames we discovered in a search through the back streets of Puerto Vallarta, are some of my photos from around Mexico.
In the corner in the photo below are the acrylics of Mark Fredrichs and, on the easel, a painting I did from a photo I took years ago of a little girl in San Pancho.
These are two of Evelyne Boren's framed giclées, printed on canvas with archival ink.
Jim Starkey from Sayulita brought his scenes of daily life in our part of Mexico. These two are Sayulita Vendors and Lo de Marcos.
And, of course, La Casita Mágica features the work of Craig Downs.
Below are Harvey and Lorraine, and What They Saw.
This one, another new work, is Siren Song.
Overhead, in the palapa, along with toys and oddities we've collected, are the hula hoop circus mobiles by Canela. Below is Señor del Fuego, the Man of Fire.
We are still decorating. Poco a poco, as we say here in Mexico. Little by little.
Our intention is for the gallery to change constantly. We will add touches each week. Craig's labor of love, the hole-in-the-face mermaid and seahorse, attracts all ages for a smiling photo op.
Karen, being the mermaid, was one of our friends who kindly sent me photos they'd taken on opening night, as I was somewhat occupied with other things...like dancing.
It was a thrilling time for us: getting the gallery ready, then hosting our friends and neighbors. We loved that so many people came, people of every style and size and persuasion. We loved that they all ate and drank and played and enjoyed themselves and the gallery.
We loved that Juan Carlos and Fernando, two young traveling musicians from Mexico City who we met one evening at a sidewalk restaurant, came and played and sang for a while.
We loved that Joe Hadlock was Musical Director and played the piano with all the joy and freedom that Craig and I have felt throughout this experience.
I like this next photo of Karen's a lot, as, truth be told, this is just what the night felt like to Craig and me in our happiness and exhaustion.
So La Casita Mágica is launched. We plan for it to be a launching pad itself, for art and culture in and around San Pancho and the Riviera Nayarit, for unknown artists we're already discovering, for music and dance performances, for sidewalk art shows and puppet shows and who knows what else.
We're filled with ideas and energy...a bit of magic...and a little mischief too.
Come join us if you can. If not, stay in touch. We have a facebook page! thanks to Craig. It's La Casita Magica Gallery. And of course you'll find all the happenings right here at sanpanchovida.com.
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My sincere thanks to these contributing photographers: Karen Fredrichs, Glenn Thibault, Jim Starkey, and Hadley Chabela Scott.
Craig and I would also like to give a heartfelt thank you to all the people who lent us their skills, talents, time and tools as we assembled the Magic Cottage. Special thanks to Glenn, who pitched in time and again wherever he was needed for weeks; to Greg, who always managed to be there when something needed hanging or tweaking; to Mark for being our go-to carpenter; to Jack for the Giant Beanstalk, I mean Ladder; to Tom who showed up to lend a hand in those final crazy hours; and, as always, to Waldo and Lidia who put in hours and hours of work and were unfailingly enthusiastic and supportive.
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