THE MEANING OF MEXICAN ALTAR ART: REMEMBERING MARIA SABINA
- Isis Rodriguez
- 12 minutes ago
- 3 min read
"REMEMBERING MARIA SABINA" is an altar painting that I did around 2019 from my series, "Perros Sagrados".
I had watched the documentary "Mujer Espíritu" and was reading the book, "Maria Sabina" by Álvaro Estrada.
This investigation made me appreciate her way of life and how she healed people. In the book, "Maria Sabina", which is a book created entirely from her words, she talks her past to present. Her words and chanting were simple and allegorical. Her relationship to the mountains she lived in, the sacred mushrooms that she referred to tenderly as "ninos santos" and the way she worked to survive, including raising silkworms to create huipils was eye opening. I had many visions of paintings in my head and wanted to do a series dedicated to this mystical Mexican treasure of a woman in which each painting marks important stages in her life.
In Chapter 1 "The Life" page 13, she says: "Without thinking much about it, I put the mushrooms in my mouth and chewed them up. Their taste wasn't pleasant; on the contrary, they were bitter, tasting of roots, of the earth. I ate them all up. My sister Maria Ana, watching me, did the same. After having eaten the mushrooms, we felt dizzy, as if we were drunk, and we began to cry; but this dizziness passed and then we became very content. Later we felt good. It was like a new hope in life...In the days that followed, when we felt hungy, we ate the mushrooms...The mushrooms made us ask Good not to make us suffer so much. "
This made me very upset to know that the reason she took the mushrooms was out of hunger. Being an American artist of Mexican and Puerto Rican heritage and had lived in San Francisco California, known for it's hippie culture, love ins, and drug culture, gave me pause. I realized the difference between Western drug recreational lifestyle and Sabina's was once of choice. I felt an injustice that she suffered so much.
I imagined an painting that would honor her and reflect her impoverished life. What would it look like?
After finishing the book, I created an altar painting that included a picture of her with a xoloitzcuintle dog, known for being guides into the afterlife. I placed the dog in a wooden crate and placed the altar on top with her divine mushrooms, pan de muerto, cempasuchil and candles and incense burning. It is a Day of the Dead art piece in which we reflect on our dead loved ones and those who have touched our lives. May Maria Sabina be remembered for all that she did and know that her life mattered.
This painting has been sold but it will be on display from September 19th-December 14th at the National Museum of Mexican Art in Chicago Illinois. I have limited edition giclée prints of only 50 of this painting that honors this great female healer. You can purchase yours here.
And if you happen to be in Chicago, I will be attending the opening reception on Friday September 19th at 6pm. Reserve with the Museum here
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