Tejuanas y yo

This is a real stretch, but this is a colored pencil drawing that I did almost ten years ago.  It was a monumental work that took me six months to complete and I seized hostages and turned them into slaves (children) to do some of the menial labor, like the grass.  We had spent the summer in Oaxaca where I learned about the women from Tejuantepec who managed to outlaw men from owning property or running businesses in their town.  I was enchanted with these women (as was Frida Kahlo) and best of all possible worlds, got invited to a large party.  I and my daughter, Adrienne, dressed up and had our hair done like the Tejuanas and went to the party.  I took loads of photos.  This drawing is a composite of some of the women that I photographed including myself (far right) and Adrienne (right braid, wrong color)in the middle. Ted made a beautiful frame using a wood from Mexico and one from South America.  This image is not so good because I forgot to photograph it before framing it! And it is too difficult to dismantle it. " The Tejuanas" hangs in my dining room.