Jose Mendez’s vibrant oil paintings depict the customs and legends of the Tz’utujil Mayans in his native San Pedro La Laguna, Guatemala, where a proud painting tradition has flourished for generations. Set on magnificent Lake Atitlan and surrounded by several volcanoes, San Pedro offers myriad subjects for portraiture and interpretation - the coffee harvest, the bustling Sunday market, veneration of Mayan folk saint Maximón, women in traditional dress, everyday encounters Jose captures in studied layers of oil, combining aspects of realism and primitivism.
But San Pedro is also a town with endemic poverty. In response to the malnourishment and lack of opportunity faced by many mayan families, Jose and his brother Henry founded Ayudame a Pintar Mi Futuro (Help me paint my future) in 2009, a project which offers free art classes to children from the poorest families in San Pedro and provides a monthly basket of basic foodstuffs to their mothers. The project is supported through sales of Jose and Henry’s Paintings, and through the help of sponsors in the United States.
On November 3rd and 4th, Jose’s painting will be exhibited at Felix Kulpa and will be on sale alongside other traditional Mayan art - textiles and jewelry- from San Pedro La Leguna. At 12pm on November 4th, Jose will speak about Ayudame a Pintar Mi Futuro at the El Centro Resource Center on the UC Santa Cruz campus, along with psychologist Miranda Pope from Ayudame and Professor Barbara Rogoff, author of Developing Destinies: A Mayan Midwife and Town.
Sales of all Mayan art at Felix Kulpa support Jose’s philanthropic work in San Pedro, allowing Ayudame to survive financially. For more information, please see the Ayudame website:
http://www.paintmyfuture.org/
