Alebrije, Artensanìas de Oaxaca, Mèxico

Alebrijes (Spanish pronunciation: [aleˈβɾixes]) are brightly colored Mexican folk art sculptures of fantastical creatures. The first alebrijes, along with use of the term, originated with Pedro Linares. After dreaming the creatures while sick in the 1930s, he began to create what he saw in cardboard and papier mache. His work caught the attention of a gallery owner in Cuernavaca and later, the artists Diego Rivera and Frida Kahlo. Linares was originally from San Antonio Arrazola, Oaxaca, and on family visits, demonstrated his designs there. The Oaxaca valley area already had a history of carving animal and other types of figures from wood, and Linares’ designs were adapted to the carving of a local wood called copal. This adaptation was pioneered by Arrazola native Manuel Jiménez. This version of the craft has since spread to a number of other towns, most notably San Martín Tilcajete and La Unión Tejalapan, become a major source of income for the area, especially for Tilcajete. The success of the craft, however, has led to the depletion of the native copal trees. Attempts to remedy this, with reforestation efforts and management of wild copal trees has only had limited success. The three towns most closely associated with alebrije production in Oaxaca have produced a number of notable artisans such as Manuel Jiménez, Jacobo Angeles, Martin Sandiego, Efrain and Silvia Fuentes and Miguel Sandiego.

Hi Monika

Very nice smooth narration. Local information is good. I congratulate you. Copal tree has been a national tree. Beautiful picture beautiful presentation. Beautiful presentation and sharing. Excellent photo.

BO & YS* & LİKE

Best wishes İsmail

A Oaxaca sono giorni del lutto per la grave frana di una collina con circa 400 dispersi. Questa artigiano è davvero bellissimo. Monika grazi per l'informazione davvero interessante. Un carissimo saluto, D.

Very nice photo Monika. Greetings John.

Cool!! lIke2

Simpatico animaletto ! Like 3.....ciao, milos.

nice! greetings

yemtas thank you very much for your wonderful comment and preferences :):):) D, ho caricato questa foto proprio per ricordare la terribile tragedia di Oaxaca - grazie per la tua sensibilità, D - John, longdistancer,GabrieleB I greatly appreciate your wonderful comments and L!

milos, grazie! anche tu sei molto simpatico... ciao a todos, M(°!°)nika

Interessante, ottima spiegazione. Ciao, Lorenzo

grazie **lorenzo! un saluto solare <(°!°)> monika

Really cool art! This is very nice! I'm glad to google and see this art! Thank you for sharing this.

Jean