Spotlight on Latino Ohio: Héctor Castellanos and Gabriela Pickett

by Juan Díes, curator of Latino Ohio

This year, working closely with the Welcome Dayton: Immigrant Friendly City initiative, the Cityfolk Festival's material culture area will focus on local Latino culture. Cityfolk's Director of Programs Dave Barber, with the help of Juan Díes, a folklorist and co-founder of the group Sones de Mexico Ensemble (also performing at the Festival), is curating the exhibition that features mostly Latino artists from Ohio and the Midwest who proudly preserve and share their heritage.

Based on research conducted by Díes for the Ohio Arts Council in 2009, the exhibition will feature interactive displays of mural art, traditional costume and hair styles, ceramic and stone work, foodways, masks, cut paper, yarn sculptures, sawdust carpets, and Day of the Dead traditions.  Visitors will be able to observe Latino artists with roots in Mexico, Puerto Rico, Guatemala, and Panama as they work on their craft. Those who wish to get a little closer to the art will also be able to participate in several hands-on activities and hear the artists share their thoughts on the narrative stage.

Two artists featured in this year’s exhibition are Héctor Castellanos and Gabriela Pickett.

Héctor Castellanos creates sawdust carpets, a tradition practiced in his native Guatemala during Holy Week. His father was a commercial painter and his mother a dressmaker. While Hector received academic training as a fine arts painter, he also has a deep connection this folk tradition from his homeland. Intricate carpet designs are drawn on the pavement using sawdust that has been dyed in different colors. When finished, a procession walks on it, intentionally destroying the design to remind everyone about the fleeting quality of earthly life. Castellanos maintains this tradition alive in his new home in Cleveland and is often commissioned by community groups to create sawdust carpets in schools and churches.

Gabriela Pickett will paint a mural at this year’s Cityfolk Festival. She is a Dayton-based painter and sculptor who was born and educated in Mexico City where mural art has a history that dates back to pre-Columbian days. Gabriela comes from a long line of talented artists, including her father, her younger brother, who is also a painter, and her sister, who is a glass artist. Her husband, Will—says Gabriela—has encouraged her and has been an important factor in her decision to pursue her art in the U.S. Murals are often public statements with a social commentary aimed the community. In Dayton, Gabriela is an activist for social justice. She serves as Executive Director of the Unitarian Fellowship of World Peace and as curator of the Missing Peace Art Space. She studied art at Wright State University in the U.S. but draws inspiration from her Mexican heritage, a mixture of pre-Hispanic metaphors blended with graphic, and sometimes even terrifying, images of both great beauty and great suffering. One of the frequent themes of her work is skeletons and skulls related to the Mexican Day of the Dead tradition.