Saturday, January 22,2011 — Good bye Puerto Vallarta

Today I rose at 6:30 and ate breakfast at 7:30. That's a first for me during this trip. Those of you who know me well know that I tend to be a night owl.

Today's picture shows the view from the terrace at the Puerto Vallarta Botanical Gardens, located on the river road leading to El Tuito.

After Jean Pierre picked me up from Los Arcos we went directly to the Peter Gray museum where Bill McGrail has mounted a truly fine exhibition of tapestries. Some are older Larochette pieces, some new by Jean Pierre and about fifty small format pieces by the weavers of the Maiz series that we've been working on for several years now. There are also a few older pieces in small format such as my "Monday Morning in Yelapa" and my much earlier "'Water Melon." Elaine Duncan and Christine Rivers as well as Gabriel Canales also contibuted pieces to this part of the show. I have to say that I feel it is one of the most beautiful and varied tapestry groupings I've seen in recent years. Gabriel Canales did two magnificent pieces using multiple sections or elements. One features small weavings attached to a wire form in the shape of a cross. This piece hangs about six inches away from the wall. I can't wait to see the shadows it will cast when the lighting is adjusted. His other major piece is a continuation of his paint brush series. I believe there are 32 brushes in all. About 12 of those brushes are covered with small tapestries in the center, and they are surrounded by a framing of unwoven brushes around the entire periphery, forming a slightly vertically oriented whole. Each woven brush is a precious jewel and the unwoven ones provide a great foil to highlight the center, woven pieces. Hats off to you Gabriel.

The Larochette "Water" series is also well represented in this showing. Many who already care greatly for this series are in for some incredible surprises. Two of the pieces are woven twice and in one case, combined vertically and in the other, horizontally as mirror images. Both are smashing successes and I suspect they will have a flurry of requests for these double versions.

I brought a little, very light weight tripod down with me so that I would have a chance to better photograph some of the Maiz pieces that I don't feel I have good examples of. Sadly, after figuring out the workings of this nice little tripod, it turned out to be too short to function for this job because the tapestries are hung fairly high and the tripod is a bit shorter than I had anticipated. Oh, the best of intentions. So I took a chance and reshot the whole group hand held. Time will tell.

We stopped for a late lunch at one of the vegetarian restaurants in Vallarta and did several more errands before heading south out of town toward El Tuito. I am very fond of that trip. I remember the first time we did it with Jean Pierre. Elaine Stevens was determined to locate Mismaloya. She had been requested to purchase some postcards for a friend or relative. Of course we didn't find the cards right away but some other time during the workshop the task was accomplished. The card search plus all the lore about John Huston and the Burtons filming at that location has definitely helped etch this location in my mind. I never tire of turning inland at Boca de Tomatlan and heading up along the river toward El Tuito. Skip used to love that ride and there was no lack of geological features for him to comment on. In more recent years, we enjoyed watching the new botanical gardens mature over a very short period. The garden's view of the river below is breathtaking.

Arriving at Casa Tejedora in the center of El Tuito, we were greeted by Yael who had bussed up from Vallarta after her shopping trip for supplies. We had a wonderful miso soup followed by a cup of the tea that Tim had sent to JP. I love the earthy aroma of this tea and finished my cup over in my favorite quarters ...."the cell" in the back yard. Life doesn't get much better. I'm so happy to be in this magical place once again.