The week’s gone well, I’ve been drawing here and there and making a bit of progress on the project. I’ve taken the plunge and tried my hand at making papier-mâché masks and a slightly experimental animated analogue reel of a swimmer in a dumscrolling style – let’s see how it turns out. The masks are still in the very early stages; there’s still a lot of trial and error ahead before I get it right, but we’re getting there.
On Saturday we had a send-off for Guille, who’s finished his residency – that’s the thing about this, people leave – and we went to a typical cantina near the CAZ. There we tried ‘cantaritos’, a mix of soda, lime and tequila, a bit like a margarita but more popular. We loved them; I don’t know why it’s taken us two weeks to discover them.
The next day, we’d just organised a mini tour to Tequila, the village of Tequila in the Tequila region. It was definitely the most touristy thing we’d done so far. It’s like a mini Benidorm and the girls are dressed like cowgirls, in summer denim outfits, wide-brimmed hats and high cowboy boots – really cool, but my practical mind always thinks, ‘How hot must their feet be!’ Apparently it’s called the Charrería style, very charro. On the tour, they take you to see the agave fields and show you a bit of the tequila-making process, which is cool, and then they trap you into drinking at least a litre of tequila without having had lunch...
In the village of Tequila, we saw the Papantla flyers, who swing down from a tall pole, spinning through the air while suspended by a rope; it’s a very short show, but it’s incredible, not to mention the fabrics they wear, which they embroider themselves.
This week is also the Guadalajara Film Festival, which is being held at the university’s film library, and we residents of the CAZ are going to be doing some live drawing on a tablet at the Casa del Autor stand there. I drew some random people and a few who posed for me.
It was interesting because as I drew them, they could see themselves taking shape stroke by stroke on the screen; normally, with traditional drawing, they don’t see it until I’ve finished.
