FOCUS ON ART

The Tao of Light and Shadow

      * I met Sue Breitfeller backstage at the Little Theatre. She was creating the most authentic and prettiest trellis flat I’d ever seen, just with paint. Obviously that lucky play had snagged themselves a real artist to decorate their set. Later, Sue created a thrilling set design for “The Miracle Worker” and many excellent lighting designs as well, with husband Len’s help.
     Though she began her art career in 1979 painting backdrops for the stage, she is now a successful fine artist, painting mostly in the style of Georgia O’Keefe, and showing in the United States. Her recent exhibit at Efren Gonzalez’s gallery made her professionalism overwhelmingly clear. Sitting on a bench, fascinated, I slowly became aware that the usual middle-grounds and backgrounds were all but non-existent in the canvases, yet the depth and vivid reality still almost jumped off the canvases. I cornered her and asked her why.
     30 years, she said, “The first thing is always lighting. Where’s your light source? That’s what you have to always have in your mind. If you follow it in every stroke of the painting, you’ll create depth and reality, you won’t need to paint in the middle and backgrounds because the light creates them for you!” Looking around again, I saw that she was right. Every stem, petal and drop of water she paints remains true to the original light source. And from light and shadow, great depth is born.
     * Yes, events are piling up, but write this down anyway; you may not see this fascinating pre-Hispanic music group again for quite a while. At 6pm December 10, Efren Gonzales presents a concert and dinner to benefit the Saul Rodiles Pina School. Guadalajara’s “Grupo de Musica Prehispanica Huehuecuicatl” will play authentic early Mexican music on natural instruments made from wood, clay pots, armadillo shells and more. The parents are creating a spectacular dinner of moles, birria, pozole, tamales and other favorites for your delight.
     Starting December 6, tickets at 150 pesos are available at Efren’s gallery next to the Ajijic Cine, Lloyd in Ajijc, the New Posada, and the LCS. The parents of the school kids invite you to join them in bringing their dream to reality: a better education for their children, the future of this community. The location for this very special holiday event is the school, 1½ blocks west of Colon on Hidalgo. The facade of the school has a mural by Efren – you can’t miss it.