Mexican Soid Pastrana colors his homeland

By Adrian Smith

JAKARTA (JP): For Mexican Soid Pastrana, his art is inextricably linked to the land from where he comes.

Far from depicting detailed panoramic landscapes, his watercolors are all about color and symbolism. For the resident of Mexico City for the past 12 years, his paintings are a reflection of the land where he grew up, Oaxaca province in the far south of the capital.

Trained in graphic design, Pastrana, a native Indian, took the bold step of trying to make it on his own as a painter at the age of 23. Now 30, he has crafted his own style of "colorist" art, grounded in earthy colors and figurative content influenced, in part, by Mexican Indian designs.

What is immediately visible is his stylistic use of certain shades of each color, the serialization of particular symbols, their two dimensional format as well as their matrix-like structures.

As far as content goes, it is perhaps not unusual that he should look to the land for inspiration. Mexico has a down-to- earth history, closely related to the struggle for land ownership and reform. One only has to look at the Zapatista movement and much of the content of modern Mexican art to discover this.

Retaining the colors of his home province -- earthy reds, sky blues, gold, deep purple, yellow and green -- appears to provide him with some refuge of mind, some identity in the melting pot of the megalopolis in which he now lives. Indeed, he is keen to point out, "Inside Mexico there are many Mexicos".

If the origins of his subject matter are immediately obvious, his style may be less so. His use of color, bold imagery and the absence of perspective seem mildly evocative of the German Expressionists; Paul Klee and Gustav Klimt for example, though they draw upon a very different cultural heritage.

All 35 of his paintings displayed in the current exhibition titled The Color of My Land are watercolors, bar a few ink sketches on hand-made paper. He has, though, experimented with oils and ceramics on other occasions.

There are a number of recurring symbols; dogs, hummingbirds, churches, cacti, figures with hats. All feature Pastrana's trademark eyes - white slits with piercing black irises - reminiscent of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics. Such motifs animate his paintings and allude to spirit-like qualities behind many of his creations.

Magical

There is something magical about his paintings. Indeed, a recurring theme is the depiction of two bordering states; the real and the divine. None more so than in his painting titled Five lies and one truth. Here the lies are depicted as life, the only truth is death.

This draws on an unusual popular belief in Mexico, death is celebrated as a transition from one state to another, with one's spirit a regular visitor to earth.

There are others, though, which depict a more dreamy state of affairs. In My kingdom doesn't belong to this land, the work is divided into alternating parallel strips, the lower being reality, the upper fantasy.

One of his creations stands out for its inherently political content. Victor Yodo, Freedom depicts a local peasant abducted by the armed forces in 1978 and not heard of since.

His red kerchief sports a red star-like symbol reminiscent of many land reform movements, his stomach is holed out to reveal silhouettes of military figures.

Many are on a lighter, more playful note. Little Circus, dedicated to the artist's niece, Naomi, celebrates small town entertainment in Mexico, with repeated images of elephants and other exotic animals paralleled across the paper.

His training in graphic design seems to have aided his prolific output and attention to detail.

"I consider myself very self-disciplined and I like order. Work comes first for me. I attribute my success to being able to maintain my daily work schedule," Pastrana said.

Interestingly enough, he is neither from an artistic background, nor was painting his early life-long dream.

"I wanted to be a poet but wasn't any good at it. So, I had to make do with incorporating other people's poems or by using them as sources of inspiration," he said.

Poetical language

If spirits inhabit the subjects of his paintings then his artistic expression is communicated through his poetic language, elevating the magic of everyday things.

Indeed, poems are occasionally inscribed so as to leave you in no doubt about the message and the source of inspiration.

"Poetry and painting are two separate arts. What I am trying to do is bring them together". The themes of the poems he has adopted include being yourself, missing something, loving someone.

Poetry isn't his only source of inspiration, novels and films have also been a creative well, as have some of the characters that repeatedly pop up in his paintings.

"Mexican dogs seem to have a life of their own, each having a particular character" he said.

How have his paintings changed over the years?

"Well, I feel I have matured over the years and this had been reflected in my output, the use of colors and their symbolic content."

Indeed, looking back through his portfolio the more recent of his paintings appear less fluid, the outlines more clear-cut, cerebral and simplistic.

His artistic achievements and prolific output have enabled him to reach a certain stable plateau of success and recognition. His paintings now fetch US$1,000. Exhibitions of his work are booked solidly for the next two years, not just in Mexico but around the world.

For anyone wishing to get a sample of Mexican culture, this exhibition is a colorful place to start.

Soid Pastrana's exhibition The Color of My Land opens on Aug. 24 and runs through Aug. 28 at La Casa de Mexico, Jl.Panglima Polim III Nos.1-3. Phone: 7247169