Slow Baja - Slow Baja - Art and Tacos with Adalberto Pérez Meillón

Episode Date: May 1, 2020

Adalberto Pérez Mellión is an artist and printmaker who operates Taller Pérez Mellión—initially opened as Galleria Pérez Mellión in 1988. In the beginning, he specialized in selling the art and crafts of the Paipai and the Kumeyaay Indian tribes of Northern Baja. He spent years traveling to their remote communities by four-wheel-drive vehicle trading for their handicrafts. After an artist-in-residence scholarship took him to Zacatecas, to study printmaking at the Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguerez, Pérez Mellión returned to Ensenada and turned his gallery into a printing studio. Since that day, he has been teaching the craft of printmaking while selling the art of his students and local contemporary artists. In this conversation, we discuss his progression from folk-art dealer to becoming an artist and a teacher of printmaking. Additionally, we covered a three-day hike with burros to see cave art he took with our mutual friend Ted Donovan led by Francisco Detrell. Last but certainly not least, we discussed the origins of fish tacos in Ensenada and his favorite tacos stands. Please note we taped this conversation in January 2020 before social distancing due to COVID-19 was in practice. Taller Pérez Mellión Lazaro Cardenas 22820 Ensenada, Baja California [phone] www.facebook.com/pages/Taller-Pér…/113662939114683 Centro de las Artes de Baja California Boulevard Lázaro Cárdenas y Avenida Club Rotario 22880 Ensenada, Baja California (646) 173 43 07/08 www.icbc.gob.mx www.facebook.com/CEARTEnsenada/ Francisco Detrell Baja Guide Expediciones de Ecoturismo [phone] [e-mail] Tacos Corona Tacos de Pescado and Camaron Avenida y, Espinoza, Benito Juárez, tacoscorona.business.site

Hey, this is Michael Emery. Thanks for tuning into the Slow Baja. This podcast is powered by Tequila Fortaleza, handmade in small batches, and hands down, my favorite tequila. Hey, this podcast was recorded in Ensenada back in January pre-COVID-19 lockdown, and we wish our friends in Baja well. They're getting through this lockdown.

And my conversation today is with Aldeberto Perez-Meil. He's a printmaker and runs an art gallery and printmaking shop near the cruise ship terminal and the marina in downtown Ensenada. And we talk about folk art and his process as a printmaker. And what else? Tacos. I hope you enjoy the show. Cheers.

Hello, hello. My name is Adalberto Perez-Meyon. I am the owner of Tayer Perez-Meyon. Tayer Peresméon is a gallery, it's an art gallery. It used to be an arts and crafts gallery, folk art of higher level. But now we are printmakers. We produce printmaking and teach. We have here the press, so people come and learn from me.

Small groups or individuals. When I have larger groups, I use... the printmaking shop and the art center here. And our shop, our Tayer Perezmellon is in Ensenada, Baja, Baja California. It's by Costero Boulevard. Actually, the name, the official name of the boulevard is Lazzaro Cardenas, former president of Mexico in the 1940s. We have been here for 31 years.

and with the expectation of keep on going for more time. Well, we are here today because my friend and your friend, Ted Donovan, you two have known each other. He told me about a terrific trip where you were out on a on burrows and you went to see cave paintings. So tell me about art in Baja and your journey to be an artist and what people would see if they came to your show. job. Dyer Pesméjone, the four Galleria Perezmellon, started in 1988.

And that time, Patrice, my sister and I started the gallery. So in the beginning, we were selling the arts and crafts of the Bipai Indians that made pottery and the baskets of the Kumiyai. Kumiai Indians are in the mountains north of Ensenada and Paipai are in the southeast of the city in the way to San Felipe. So we also were selling very much the Matta Ortiz pottery. I used to be an school teacher in Chihuahua. And when I started my career as a school teacher there, it was the revival of the Matta Ortiz pottery.

the ancient Casas Grandes, and Matt Ortiz, which is now the contemporary party. So when I quit teaching in 88, my sister and I opened the store. And little by little artists were coming and offering their paintings and prints for sale. And very soon, we started to have success. and also we're bringing the arts and crafts and the art across the board to sell in California. And where can people find this native art in California? I have seen the baskets and the pottery.

A few galleries specialize like the people that sell southwest Indian art of the U.S., Most of them sell also the kumiai and Paii. And you had said in the past that you had actually gone to their communities and bought the work there from the artists. And now you say that they mainly would be coming to you. Tell me a little bit about their lives and the villages and how they live. It must be very interesting for you to have friends who are creating that work and to know them and to know their hands and to know their work.

See, in 1988, when we started to carry some merchandise for our store, the arts and crafts of the Indians, they were a little underdeveloped. Only a couple would have a vehicle that would make it from the village to the city. So we had to go and buy the arts and crafts from them directly in their communities. And it was an adventure. There were dirt roads, very badly maintained. So it was an outdoor adventure. And you were going in a four-wheel drive or just your car? We had a four-wheel drive.

In the beginning, we had a two-wheel drive. But sometimes, like during the rain or in the snow, we needed a four-wheel-drive vehicle. So we bought one and for years we were coming and going. And we made friends. We have kept friendship, a warm friendship with them for years. But with the time, they had developed. They have been educated not only by the governments, but also by non-profit organizations that care for them.

And they have established a very good relation. One of the agencies of the government that have done very much for them is phone art. Fomento Nacional de las artisanies. They organize contests to promote the, they increase the quality and the authenticity and the beauty of their work. and the winners obtain good prices and it made them create beautiful things and many times I have been a judge for the jury

that qualifies the production of their arts and crafts every year they have a fiesta, the nativa fiesta is around August and you see every day beautiful, more and better pieces of art. So that's a warm and heartening story that their culture and their craft is not being lost from generation to generation. It's actually increasing and because of the economics involved, the craft continues. one of the agencies that had promoted them very much is cuna Culturas Nativas Institute they advise them they provide them with social work

they organize events so they can sell their arts and craft direct to the collectors and little by little middle men like me have been disappearing. Not only for that situation, but also because I'm now 65. So I'm in the way of retiring slowly. So I don't drive now very much. I was a compulsive driver.

Now I'm old now. I started to be old. And when I went to the caves with Ted Donovan, my friend Ted Donovan, I had beautiful memories of him. It was a tour organized by Francisco de Trell. And we had to, ahead of time, he advised as, Francisco advises us to, to, hike, to walk very much and be in a good shape to do that. The roads go only to San Francisco de la Sierra, to the town, but you have to make a three-day hiking trip, so you have to be in a very good shape.

Not any just street tourists would make it. You have to have training. I'm looking forward to it. What time of year should I go? When we went, Ten and I went with Francisco de Treel, it was November. It was around November 20 before December. It was a beautiful weather. Well, if you like traveling into Baja, you know, the summers are spring and summer is hot.

So November was just very, very nice, nice weather. Terrific. Tell me about your history with, uh, Making art and creating art and your education in art. I'm looking at a beautiful piece of wood cut of an abalone fisherman here that you said was done by your teacher. As a gallery owner and artists started to come to the store. And I made friends with great artists like Jose Jule, like Alfredo Ruiz.

Also, women artists like Elena Pomar and many. So I have always liked art. As a school teacher, they train you. When I attended college here in normal school, they trained me in drawing and painting as basic tools for teaching in elementary. I have the title of elementary. school teacher. So with those basic abilities, I started my career in 1994. I started to paint

with good luck. I say that I'm spoiled because everything I make people buy it. So hardly put together a number of pieces like 40 and 50 life for an exhibit book because I sell most of what I make. That's a lucky thing for an artist and a rare thing. And also changed very much, very much my life was the opening of the state center of the arts, Searte here. Because they opened it, when they opened it in, I think 2008, immediately they started to offer classes.

And I took printmaking. And I like very much the technique of the printmaking, woodblocks, linoleums, lithography process. And I like it so much that very soon I started to be the coordinator of the printmaking shop of the Center of the Arts. And I did it voluntarily for five years. and in that time I became much more related to other artists and I also took painting and creative methods of painting and printing and the center of the arts gave me an scholarship and I went to take advanced techniques of printmaking to the city of Sakatecas

and the Manuel Fergeres Museum. And this is the way I became an artist. So with the time, we stopped caring as much as the arts and crafts before. And I quit coordinating the printmaking shop in the art center and made my own shop, my own little shop where we are now. And we changed the name of the story, was Galleria Perezmellon, is now Tallier-Peresméjon, where a printmaking shop. We show here the prints and the paintings we create

and also show the work of my students. And because I teach it here in my shop, I have this press the center piece of all this shop, because I can print here and my students and teach here. So tell me about your time in Zacatecas. How long were you there? It's a city I really love. Beautiful city. Thanks, the Center of the Arts for the scholarship. I was there for two months. They provided me with all the expenses and a place to stay. It was a beautiful. beautiful apartment that used to be the apartment of Manuel Felgeres, the star artist of Mexican artist. So the printmaking shop, Museo Gravado is a printmaking shop and they do researching and they do

experimenting on printmaking. so for for two months I was there as not as an artist by a technician that was learning the advanced methods for printing and in the time that I was there in the shop and I learned a lot and I work as a team with with the master printers in the shop and we learned a lot and I work as a team with the master printers in the shop and we We printed pieces like for Francisco Toledo and Manuel Felgeres and many other big names of the printmaking in Mexico. And there's quite a tradition of printmaking in Mexico. So who are some of your influences if you don't mind me asking? Well, I can tell that there is a line of, in this printmaking world, Teaching is like a tradition.

Not in other art forms. In other art forms, the artists are keeping very much of the knowledge, like musicians, like painters. But in printmaking, it is tradition that the artists are generous. Many, many learned from posadas in 1900. in the time before the revolution. And he was part of Talleyla Grapica Popular. And many artists that form part of that group

taught others. I'm sure one of my teachers like Leonhard Flores in direct line, learned from others that were part of Tadier de la Graphica Popular. What's amazing to me is how iconic that art has become. come, that here we are a hundred years later, more than a hundred years later, and that is still on T-shirts, on stickers, on art, it's popular, it's commercial now, and it's work that was, you know, Posada and his friends in his school, as you said, the time, and here it is, it

still stands. You see that with the modern times of mechanical electronic printmaking, artists still like artists still create things that are in black and white. We are seeing now the work of Martha Aragon. And her work that could be in many colors, still is black and white. So we can see the inference of the old printmakers still 100 years before, 100 years after. I think black and white is still very, very powerful. So the work that you're doing with the printing, you're working with your hands first.

You're working with your mind to see, and then through your mind the hands are carving physically on a medium, on a piece of wood, on a piece of linoleum, on something. So how does that work? And typically where are you doing that carving and when do you find the time in this era where everybody's looking at their phone instead of doing something else? We spend all day looking at our phones. When do you make the time to carve? And then after you have the carving to do the next steps into the printing? Especially in printmaking, I discovered that as soon as I go on designing, drawing to creating

sketches to make them into printmaking into prints and wood blocks or linoleums I discovered that you come in a moment that your mind is in peace

that all your the thoughts the talking you have in your mind stops all the feelings go away. You are not angry anymore you are not afraid of anything. You're just

enjoying a moment of peace. And how do you say meditative? Yeah, you're meditating. Meditative. Yeah, you're concentrating. You're meditating. And I think we would call that in English across, whether it's sport or art or life, you're in the zone. You're in the zone. You're locked in.

So I have asked other artists and they think the same, they feel the same, that the art puts them in a state that it is just nice. That when you are distracted, when you are working in my discipline, the pre-making, and I get to that moment, and then there are distractions. and I have noticed that when I'm distracted that I stop being in that nice moment, I make mistakes. I can drop the tools or I can smatch the ink.

So I search for those moments. I look for those moments of peace. I like that. It is my passion. But it's very easy in this world. Well, I have to do other things. I have to clean the store. I have to advertise it.

I have to attend buyers or clients. But I think that moment is what has made me an artist. And how different is the drawing, when you first draw something to the point where you're creating it, you're carving your drawing and then you're pulling your print. How different is the final product from the picture, the drawing that comes from your hand? I think in pre-making, we can see in the work of others how much time they have invested in the discipline. Because you have to put your mind a mode of cerebral, how it says, in a moment in a moment. mode. Yeah, you're saying a cerebral mode. To see things

reverse. Because when you draw with a pencil, like in a white sheet, you draw with a pencil, the sheet is white and you draw the black. But in pre-making, it's the opposite. The sheet is black.

And when you draw, you draw with a tool that make things white. So it's the opposite. Also, when you print, what is in the left side, of the plate ends up being the right side of the paper of the print. So we have to be prepared. And that experience only gives you hours and hours in the job. So you're in reverse and reverse. Reverse and reverse, left to right and black to white.

Wow, that must really play with your mind. It's almost like an Escher, you know. What time of year were you in Zacatecas? Do you remember? It was June and July 2014. 2014. And you were right there in the Central? Yes. It's a beautiful city.

It's a beautiful city. Those rose quartz buildings, the big, beautiful cathedral and the museums. And I also meeting the artists, the printmakers, master printmakers that just generously passed so much information and warmed friendship and love into my career. And also had the chance to go to another state to, I was Calientes. I was anxious to visit the Museum of Jose Guadalupe Posada, and it was just an amazing encounter with his prints.

And is that in Aguas? I was Calientes. I wish I had known. I would have visited. I was in Zacatecas for six months, seven months. many years ago, but I didn't know about Posada so much then. It's a two-hour, a bus trip to, I wascalientes from Sakatecas.

It's worth the trip. Right. Tell me a little bit about your city. Well, I, as an artist and an art dealer, because artists bring their work here for me to sell. I know the artists and I visit them in their studios, suggest people coming to Baja to visit the artists in their studios. It's amazing. Know the artists, not just their artwork,

but the person that creates the art. And the same way you are interviewing me now, that we are talking here, you could go and talk to other artists in the city. The art in the city of Ensenada has just explode not only with the Las Bejas Artes, the arts, but also the

gastronomia? How do you say? Yeah, the food. I was going to say not only has the art exploded, the food has exploded, the craft beer, the wine, it's all made here. You're in this beautiful

location of the sea and the air and the climate and it seems to be producing fruit everywhere. Yes. See, and I notice now that there are guides, people that have the experience of guiding people into gastronomy. Yeah, food.

Yeah. Also to the wineries and also to the craft beer. And I have, I met this friend. that brings people to the swap meats, to find treasures in the swap meats or the garage sales. There are experiences that people that have found pieces by Dalai, by famous artists, paintings, ceramics, and it is just an adventure.

It's a very nice time. As we were talking about the gastronomy, gastronomia here now that Encinada is becoming a location, a center of chefs and food and craft beer and wine. What do you make of all that? Talking about the gastronomia, how do you say in English? Well, the direct translation is gastronomy, but we don't use that phrase. We would say food. We would say food or maybe use the French word hot cuisine,

high cuisine, you know, or we would just say food. We're going out to a nice meal. See, I think the presence of the restaurants of fine chefs, fine cooks, have expanded into tacos, have expanded into my favorite. See, into the seafood. that was very simple in the past. It is now enriched, I think, by the knowledge of the chefs and all that. And Senada has one school of gastronomy in the university, and there are also private chefs that teach. And so it has made Senada very interesting into food.

into food. Fish tacos. How fish tacos started here? They say that fish taco is a Japanese

recipe originally. Japanese people that used to live in El Sausal were making tempura. They were... That makes a lot of sense. So is the tempura... Fish covered with egg

and they fried them. So people saw that the Japanese were making the tempura and said, oh, we can make a taco of it. And then it's now an industry. The fish taco is an industry. As a matter of fact, my favorite is fish taco stand by Spinoza and Fifth. Not Phoenix, but across the street from Phoenix. I think the Phoenix Taco stand is owned by the same family but it's amazing that just across the street

is less visited so you eat more more relaxed because there are so much people in the side so you hear with more calm across the street and that's an important question that I like to ask everybody in Bahamas where is their favorite taco So you've told me about your favorite fish taco now. On the corner of what and what? Spinoza and Fifth.

And it's a cross from Phoenix. Phoenix Taco. Okay. And then if you were out to get a meat taco, carneasada or a alpastor, or what do you like when you go out for tacos? I like very much the tacos de guizzado. Ah, guisado.

Gizado are, my favorite are, and Ruiz and Amber which is 19th Street Ruiz and then and Ruiz is the second door to the left on this side of the street

I recommend to you These are taco shops that may have a name or may not have a name but you know them by sight and location Yes yes Tacos de Guizado Ruiz and Amber Across from 7-Eleven They are very good. They are only in the morning and mid-afternoon.

They are not there in the night. It's like for breakfast or lunch. Yes. So what I thought was interesting today and just walking around this morning, you can find a cup of coffee now in Intanada. When I came here 30 years ago, you couldn't find coffee. Nobody made coffee. See.

Now you have coffee shops and roasteries, and it's all very precious. I enjoy coffee very much. I always have... I always see because I'm reducing my coffee drinking. But I like good coffee very much. You're opening a metal box to show me, oh, here's your coffee making setup. That smells like it's right from Chiapas. Very strong.

Smells very good. My father was from Waxaca. He was raised in a coffee growing asienda. So when we were little, my grandmother used to send us once in a while during the year a box with goods from Waxaca here to Ensenada. And I remember that it was like opening a treasure chest because she sent chunks of chocolate and coffee and coffee. beans. So I remember opening the bus and having the smell. And when we were little, my mother used to give us a box for lunch to school.

And she would make coffee with the latte, with the azucar and leech in a flask. So at the lunchtime in school, we would open the... the jar and drink coffee with our lunch. And I remember friends were making fun of us because they were having milk or soda or something else. So my sister and I would be shy and would go to the end of the school to have our lunch. And they were making fun of us.

Hey! Perez is drinking coffee. But it was a good coffee. My father liked very much the good coffee. My mother would make a café de calcetine. And those blue tin with white dots. Yes, the enamel. The blue enameled pot.

With a piece of cloth would dip the grains. Yes. To make the ground, yeah. So I have always liked coffee. Our neighbors have very good coffee. Señor Cruz from Oaxa, have very good coffee. I recommend you the chocolate with water, not with milk, with Señor Cruz, and Schenda.

It's by Blancarte between Boulevard and First Street, that side of the street. I like going there for chocolate. For chocolate? Okay, I'll have to try it. Well, you've been very generous with your time. Hey, I hope you enjoyed that. My batteries died, so there's kind of an abrupt ending, but we got to talk about art and tacos and what more do you need.

Cheers. Hey, you guys know what to do. Please help us by subscribing, sharing, rating, all that stuff. And if you missed anything, you can find the links in the show notes at slowbaha.com. I'll be back before you know it. And if you want to receive notices on new episodes, please follow Slowbara. on Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook for you old folks.