The Artists of Ajijic

by Mildred Boyd

      Renowned art centers like the Parisian Left Bank or Carmel by the Sea or Santa Fe may just possibly have more artists per square meter than Ajijic, but our tiny Mexican village on the shores of Lake Chapala is unique in that most of the artists were actually born here. Furthermore, many of them owe their early inspiration and training to the Children’s Art Program established by a visionary American woman in the 1950s and still flourishing.
      Recent interviews with a number of those long-ago students, now making art their careers, elicited touching tributes to both founder and patroness, Neill James, and long time teacher, Angelita Aldana. The program they so lovingly administered is credited with encouraging budding talent and awakening awareness to the possibilities of earning their livelihoods doing what they most loved.
      Many of those early students were sponsored by Neill to study art at San Miguel de Allende’s prestigious Institute or the University of Guadalajara’s art school. Such familiar names as Juan Navarro and Daniel Palma are among them. Others, like Victor Romero, Dionicio Morales and Javier Ramos have parlayed their early training into successful careers and now own the galleries which display their current work here in Lakeside and are often represented in galleries in other cities. Others, like Ramon Navarro, Florentino Padilla, Antonio Lopez Vega and Jose Manuel Castañeda went on to teach art at universities here or in the United States.
      A recent retrospective exhibit of the works, past and present, of these artists and of the talented youngsters now following in their footsteps was such a success that a similar show is planned for the Lake Chapala Society’s Fiftieth Anniversary celebration on January 15th, 2005, and requests to show the collection in museums and galleries around Mexico are currently being considered.

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