Museo Estudio Diego Rivera

The full name of this place is Museo Casa Estudio Diego Rivera y Frida Kahlo, a mouthful really. This was Diego Rivera's studio/home that he shared with his wife Frida Kahlo. It is located in the San Angel area in Mexico City and admission is free. If you want to take photographs, it was only $30 pesos at the time I went which was in October 2011. It was designed and built by the famous architect Juan O'Gorman. There are two houses, one for Diego and the other for Frida, surrounded by a cactus hedge. The architect connected the houses by a rooftop bridge which Frida would use to bring Diego his meals.

The entrance

Inside of Rivera's studio space. 



A portrait of Dolores del Río painted by Rivera. She was a famous Mexican film actress.

Diego Rivera's clothes



Random stuff I shot.

Next to the studio was Rivera's bedroom. They had a pair of his pajamas laid out on the bed.

Some of his personal items on the nightstand.

A wedding couple made of papier-mâché.

Upstairs, you could look down on the studio space.

Diego's hat

Along the way going over to Frida's side, I saw a table with papier-mâché skeletons laid out on it. They give workshops to kiddos. Here was one of them. They hadn't been painted yet.

Her side was smaller and kind of boring, which was disappointing. They did have her very small kitchen displayed.

Close-up of the yellow skeleton man.

They had photographs displayed throughout both houses. Some of them are permanent and some they rotate out.

This is the outside of the place. The pink building is Rivera's side. The blue is Frida's.

This was my Polaroid attempt with that wretched PUSH! film that I have come to despise. I thought there was enough light but apparently not. It has turned a horrible blue shade by now too. To keep it from going blue, you have to make an emulsion lift out of it but I don't want to do that. I want to keep the Polaroid in its original state because part of my series is displaying the actual Polaroids with the others I shot. Call me stubborn, but they will remain intact regardless of what they look like.

I have three more shots of this film and am not quite sure what I want to do with them. I have less than a month in Mexico too. I will be returning back to the states in late December. I am ready to come home. I've enjoyed my stay here and have learned so many things, mainly with myself. Lots of time to do some self-reflecting and to figure out my priorities.

Next blog: Plaza de las Tres Culturas

Día de los Muertos Part 3: Panteón Xoco and Coyoacan

The final blog about Día de los Muertos. I swear. This one will be short and sweet. Mainly photographs.

One night, Ariana and I went to Coyoacán to check out the celebrations happening there. There was a crap ton of people. A lot of them were wearing costumes. A lot of kiddos running around asking for candy. Instead of going to houses and knocking on doors asking for candy, they go to public squares or even just on the street and ask for it. There was suppose to be a chocolate festival going on too but we couldn't find it. We just roamed around.

An altar at a church in Coyoacán.

Ariana lost in a sea of people.



An altar inside the market at Coyoacán square.

Some cool puppets.

Skeletons were trying to take over.

A fab couple

Made it to a cemetery, Panteón Xoco, pretty close to where we live. We were there for about two hours. Olivia ended up befriending some girls almost immediately. I find it amazing how social she is.

Right outside the cemetery they were selling flowers.

Some of the graves that were decorated.

 

 

The girls that Olivia made friends with. They were cousins.

 

 

Next blog: Museo Estudio de Diego Rivera

Día de los Muertos Part 2: UNAM

UNAM (Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México) is very close to our apartment. They have an annual Day of the Dead celebration they put on called Mega Ofrenda. Every year they have a different theme and this year they were honoring Jorge Luis Borges. He was a famous Argentine writer, essayist and poet. His most famous books are Ficciones and The Aleph. Many students and organizations compete to build the coolest altar. I had no idea that they did this until about a day or two before it started. I was really excited to see all the different altars.

La Catrina was walking about.

Olivia with La Catrina

I thought this display for drunk driving was interesting. Creative use with the beer bottles.

There was a vast amount of altars. I doubled up the photos so I could show more.

The altar with all the balls spun around. The other altar has a more traditional style.

Guess who the skeleton guy is suppose to be?

The pattern on the bottom was made out of seeds.

I took some photos of altars in the day and at night. There were a lot more people there at night.

People viewing the altar pictured above

Justin wearing some glowing horns.

Ariana, Olivia and me being silly.

Olivia

Next blog: Día de los Muertos Part 3: Coyoacán and Panteón Xoco
This will be the last of the Day of the Dead blogs