In 2020, I completed a very large woodblock print (9’ wide by 6’ high) that was exhibited at the National Hispanic Cultural Center in Albuquerque New Mexico. “Maria Martinez and Francisco Toledo with Xoloitzcuintle” is extracted from that larger mural as a single print here. The larger mural titled “Pan American Unity” was based on the composition of Diego Rivera’s 1940’s mural of the same name in San Francisco. Because he believed that art was a unifying element across the Americas, Rivera’s Panel 3 also included a number of artisans in its composition. This woodcut print reflects my own interpretation of one part of his mural. Francisco Toledo was an extremely important contemporary artist from Oaxaca Mexico who I chose to depict holding the Xoloitzcuintle dog, known as the dog of the Aztecs. Maria Martinez (of San Ildefonso Pueblo in New Mexico), to the side of Francisco, is holding her internationally famous pottery, Black Pottery, that she resurrected from a tradition that had gone extinct.

Original woodblock printed with oil-based inks on full sheet of Arnhem paper (22" x 30". Printed in the artist's studio on a Takach etching press.