News Scrapbook 1982-1984

Scene

Monday, May 16, 1983

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Singles/Landers/Bornbeck/Classified

Trees of life

Forests of figurines that germinated in fertile Mexican imaginations assault your eyes with their bold, lurid colors

By Jack Williams Tribune Staff Writer W ELCOME to the modest farming community of Metepec, Mexico, where art and culture grow on trees of life and forests of figurines sprout from fertile imaginations. Welcome to bold, lurid colors that assault your eyes like shafts of ultra- violet sunlight and challenge your W ern sensibilities. Welcome to a world of art tbat is as foreign to U.S. culture as the shrill, lumbering tones of a band of Metepec natives whose music was recorded by American visitors. Welcome to Founders' Gallery at the University of San Diego, which has borrowed a large part of Metepec and turned it into an exhibit called Arbo/ de la Vida, the ceramics of . tepee. The exhibit is open from noon to 5 p.m. (9 p.m. Wednesdays) weekdays through June 15. Complete with a soundtrack from this curious town seven miles south- east of Mexico City, it is an evolu- tionary study of the Mexican Tree of Life - which, according to exhibit curator Linda McAllister, originated in Metepec in the 1940s. Today, households the world over display these trees in various forms, oblivious, most of them, to their ori- gin or significanc~.

The first such trees were made about 1945, according to Monico Soteno, a prize-winning potter who re-created pieces from his great- grandfather's molds specifically for this exhibition. One of the first versions of the tree of life is a hand-modeled Adam and Eve flanking a tree whose six up-- turned branches end in candlehold- ers. Indeed, biblical themes incorpo- rating Adam and Eve accounted for the birth of this form of clay sculp- ture, according to McAllister. As ac- ceptance spread, tastes and demands of consumers dictated other forms, and an art form spawned by Metepec's mos~ creative citizens began to evolve. Decorative ceramics such as black· glazed banks, water jugs, candlehold- ers and figurines molded in the shapes of birds, animals and mythi- cal creatures preceded the tree of life, said McAllister. Many of these also are on display among the 85 pieces assembled by USD art stu- dents and Terry Whitcomb, chair- man of the university's art depart- ment. Included in the exhibit is a 37-fig- ure cuadrj//a used as a Mexican folk custom to cure the ill. The figures - Please see ART, D-4

Tribune photos by Rick McCarthy

A sampling ofart from the Metepec exhibit at Foun- ders' Gallery at USD - clockwise, from upper left, an overall view of the ex- hibit; a tree of life; figure, on a rearing animal, and a ceramic mermaid.

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SOUTHERN CROSS

200 slated .to- graduate... Continued from page 1 7 p.m. in the school

.,. baccalaureate Mass is planned for June 10 at 7 o.m. at nearby St. Charles Church, Imperial Beach. KIM RILEY was chosen valedictorian and Madeleine Ferbal was named salutatorian for the Marian High School commencement Ct'remony Seniors and faculty will eat at Tom Hamm's Lightl,ouse on June 3 at noon for their senior luncheon. Marian High School's Principal's Award Banqa~t honoring scholastic achievement begins at 6:30 p.m. on May 23 at the Bahia Hotel. FORTY-SEVEN students will graduate from Vincent Memorial High School in Calexico on May 28. A baccalaureate Mass will be concelebrated by Bishop Chavez and attending Imperial Valley priests at 5 p.m. in Our Lady of Guadalupe Church. Commencement exercises will follow. Valedictorian is Roxana Gallego and salutatorian is Letitia Tapia. Diplomas will be handed out by Bishop Chavez and the principal, Blessed Sacrament Sister Ana Aceves. The Casino de M~xicali will be the site of a graduation dance for parents and graduates on May 29 at 8 p.m. An honors banquet, for those who have won notice for th,.'.r scholastic abilities, is planned for

parents \\Ill auend a graduatton bru'1ch at Vacatton Village. U I HI'S COMMENCEMENT exe1 ci es in Golden Hall are planned to begin J t1ne t 5 at 6 30 p rn Bishop Leo T. Maher will be there, along with Dr. 1 homas Pa)'zant, superintendent of the San Diego l,; nified School District, who will deliver the graduation address. The Linda Vista·a"Ca school wul hold an a-,,ards night May :.14 at 7 p.rn. m tht' gym Athlt'llc., s holasuc and extra- c. ur 1cul r achievement will b e 1 "ith ceremonies scheduled for Jun 18 at 2 p. n. at the. chool's north terrace. B1,h ,p Maher y,1!1 att~.1d Tl-i 1led'ctonan will be Therese Kt"rmr ,d alutatonan, .,.. ill· be • 1aria Muz 1 nd Valene metona THE BACCALAUREATE Mass Y.,11 be cdt.:brated June 17 at 9.30 a.m at th hoot's north terrace. mother-daughter brunch is plann d noon, June 5, at th A adem r demy of Our Lady ot Peace ...,ll have 118 senior in 1b graduauon

Scholastic awards will be presented in a formal ceremony scheduled for June 16 at 11 a. m. at the north terrace. The 148 members of Marian High "chool's senior class will graduaie June 10 at 7 p.m. in Golden Hall. Auxiliary Bishop Gilbert E. Chavez will participate in the commencement exercise A Please turn to page 8

ST. AUGUSTINE High School for Boys will gtaduate 126 students June 13 at 8 p.m . at the Civic Theater Community Concourse. Bishop Mahe; will preside at the commencement ceremony. Newly elected Mayor of San Diego, Roger Hedgecock, who is a 1964 graduate of St. Augustine High, will speak at the graduation. be celebrated June 13 at 9 a.m. in the high school gymnasium. The annual Senior Breakfast will follow the Mass; it will be at the Town and Country Hotel on Hotel Circle in Mission Valley. The University _of San Diego plans to award 99 graduate-level diplqmas and about 700 bachelor's degrees on May 22 at 3 p.m. in the campus ,tadium. The university's baccalaureate Mses will be May 21 at 4 p.m. in the ·Stddium. A commencement speaker bas not yet been named. A baccalaureate Mass · will BISHOP MAHER will attend graduation and the commencement for USO Law School students, slated for May 22 at 10:30 a.m. in the stadium. the

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