Daan Michael Hoekstra

Project Muralismo al Fresco, Accomplishments in 2007

1)      Built an underground lime pit, with a 5000 liter capacity, as a permanent installation at the Casa de Cultura.
2)      Slaked one metric ton of quicklime (CaO) with 2000 liters of distilled water.
3)      Purchased all tools necessary for plaster work.
4)      Purchased a half ton of ground limestone.
5)      Initiated research into local sources of lime, and traditional pigments.
6)      Purchased fresco pigments and brushes from Zecchi Colori in Florence .
7)      Initiated search for local sources of flint and quartz for sand.
8)      Initiated a series of meetings consulting the community about themes and imagery for public murals. Produced bilingual report of results from 6 meetings.
9)      Cultivated a core group of local Mexican artists as participants.
10) Built a granite grinding slab, and muller.
11) Produced a bilingual guide for artists.
12) Secured minimal funding for 2008.
13) Proposed a sister project aimed at involving geologists in the search for local sources of azurite, malachite and hematite, and seeking their expertise in small-scale calcination.
14) Commissioned the production of clay tablets for workshops.
15) Demonstrations of pigment grinding, plastering and the production of Bianco San Giovanni.
16) First fresco workshop held in December.

Planned for 2008:
1)      Introductory fresco technique workshops.
2)      Weekly mural design meetings for the artists of Alamos.
3)      Networking, partnereships, fundraising, and press coverage.

Slaking quicklime for fresco

The photo shows Daan Hoekstra and Eleazar Esquer slaking one ton of quickime for fresco in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico

Teresa Urrea Healing the Sick

Teresa Urrea

One of my current projects is a charcoal cartoon for a life sized painting of Teresa Urrea healing the sick. Known as the Santa of Cabora, this mystic and healer is also credited with instigating the Mexican Revolution.

Casa De Cultura, Alamos
Information about the “Muralismo al Fresco” Project
       Fresco painting is a technique used to paint murals. Mineral pigments ground in distilled water are painted onto fresh lime plaster. The plaster absorbs the pigments. When dry, the pigments are sealed chemically inside the wall. Fresco murals can last hundreds, even thousands, of years.
      There are extant examples of frescos painted in Ancient Egypt (c. 1200 BC) and Ancient Greece (c. 500 BC), among many other ancient civilizations. In Mexico, one can see Mayan frescos painted 1300 years ago in Bonampak. Rivera and Orozco, among others, used the technique in the 20th century.
       “Muralismo al Fresco” is a 3 year project, with limited support from the State Government of Sonora, the Instituto Sonorense de Cultura, CONACULTA, the Alamos Municipal Government and the Municipal Cultural Development Program of Sonora.
        The objective for the first year, 2007, is to build an infrastructure for painting fresco in Alamos. The lime used for fresco painting needs to slake (soak) for at least one year before it is useable, so fresco technique workshops will not begin until 2008.
In 2007, we will: 1) Build a pit to slake quicklime, 2) Slake the lime, and 3) Buy pigments, tools, and, materials.
       Objectives for 2008 are: 1) Start fresco technique workshops, and 2) Form a team for painting fresco.
       Objectives for 2009 are: 1) Continue workshops, and 2) Paint murals in public buildings in Alamos.
      Realization of goals depends on available funding.
      We will try to include everybody from Alamos that wants to participate. Beginning in June 2007, we will start having regular meetings about possible mural themes for public buildings in Alamos. Everybody who wants to give their input is invited to participate. Anybody whose idea is approved for a public building in Alamos has a right to participate in the execution of that idea, and sign any mural that might result from the process. One need not be an artist to attend meetings about mural themes. The meetings will be spread over six months to accommodate those who are out of town part of the year.
      After 5-10 meetings on mural theme, we will start a series of meetings/workshops focusing on mural design for Alamos public buildings. The meetings/workshops will be open to all artists from Alamos (minimum 1 year residency) 12 years of age and older, who want to participate. We will make efforts to invite the best artists in Alamos, and include young people and beginners too. Artists with more experience will be available to help youngsters and beginners. We will suggest collaborative teams. Finally, we will exhibit collaborative and individual designs, and with the help of the Municipal Cultural Council, and the Casa de Cultura, we will search for a fair and inclusive way to choose the best designs for public murals in Alamos.

Lime Pit!

It may not look beautiful to you, but it is beautiful to me. These circular structures are found at four corners of an old stone building that was originally a fort in the 1700s, and was used as a jail throughout most of the 20th century.

The building is now the site of the Casa de Cultura Maria Felix, a center of art and music in the colonial town of Alamos, Sonora, Mexico. In preparation for a fresco painting program, one and a half tons of lime will be slaked in 2007, so that the lime will be ready for buon fresco technique workshops in 2008. In 2009 murals will be painted in public buildings of Alamos.

How do murals fit into the editorial focus on collectors/collecting? Serious collectors will most often want to know about objects/products ready to be purchased, while mural painting is a service that must be commissioned. This could extend into a general discussion of the commission process. Collectors commisioning work vs. purchasing work already made. It could include experiences of patrons and artists in the very tricky process of collaboration on a project. Most often the viewpoints differ dramatically. The most successful projects require a meeting of the minds

The theme of reconcilliation of apparent opposites never ends. Here it is again:

"Ortega saw as fundamental to an approach to Goya the reconciliation of apparent 'opposites' presented by the artist's works: an impeccable mastery of technique, and sudden displays of almost disdainful negligence; a quality of grace, and at times of grossness; an adherence to tradition and the norms of the time, and inexplicable bursts of unbridled fantasy; The Goya of The Crockery Seller, and the Goya of the 'Black Paintings.'"

--Philip Troutman, in his introduction to Ortega y Gasset: Velasquez, Goya and the Dehumanization of Art.

Everybody can learn to draw. As recently as the 19th century, all educated Americans and Europeans had some ability in drawing. Drawing was a hobby for millions, but this active pursuit that refines visual perception was replaced by a passive activity that dulls it---television.

The problem is that when human capacities are replaced by machines, we become less human and less capable.

Below is a letter, taken from Zbigniew Herbert's prose piece "Letter," in which Jan Vermeer writes to his friend Anton van Leeuwenhoek, beautifully touching upon seemingly eternal themes about the relationship, and sometimes antagonism, between art and science. I've never seen a better definition of what emotions and convictions motivate naturalist painters:

"Undoubtedly you will be surprised I am writing rather than simply dropping by your laboratory before dusk, as so often happens. But I think I do not have enough courage, I do not know how to tell you to your face what you will read in a moment.

"I would prefer not to write this letter. I hesitated for a long time, because I really did not want to expose our long friendship to danger. Finally I made up my mind to do it. There are, after all, things more important than what unites us, more important than Leeuwenhoek, more important than Vermeer.

"A few days ago you showed me a drop of water under your new microscope. I always thought it was pure like glass, while in reality strange creatures swirl in it like in Bosch's transparent hell. During this demonstration you watched my consternation intently, and I think with satisfaction. Between us there was silence. Then you said very slowly and deliberately: 'Such is water, my dear, such and not otherwise.'

"I understood what you wanted to say by that: that we artists record appearances, the life of shadows and the deceptive surface of the world; we do not have the courage or ability to reach the essence of things. We are craftsmen so to speak who work in the matter of illusion, while you and those like you are the masters of truth.

"As you know my father owned the tavern 'Mechelen' at the market place. An old sailor often came there who had wandered all over the world, from Indochina to Brazil and from Madagascar to the Arctic Ocean. I remember him well. He was always quite tipsy but told splendid stories, and everyone gladly listened to him. He was the attraction of the place, like a big colorful picture or exotic animal. One of his favorite stories was about the Chinese emperor Shi Huang-ti.

"This emperor ordered his country to be surrounded by a thick wall, to shut himself off from everything that was different. He burned all books so he would not have to listen to the admonishing voice of the past; he forbade cultivation of any of the arts under penalty of death. (Their complete uselessness was blatantly clear when they were compared to such important tasks of state as building a fortress, or cutting off rebels' heads). Thus poets, painters, and musicians hid in the mountains and remote monasteries; they led the life of exiles tracked by a pack of informers. On the squares, piles of paintings were burned, fans, statues, ornate fabrics, objects of luxury and all things that could be considered pretty. Men, women and children all wore the same ash-colored clothes. The emperor declared war even on flowers; he ordered their fields to be buried under stones. A special decree announced that at sunset everyone was to be at home, the windows tightly covered with black curtains because (you know yourself) what incredible pictures can be painted by the wind, clouds, and the light of sunset.

"The emperor valued only science. He showered scientists with honors and gold. Every day astronomers would bring news of the discovery of a new or imaginary star. In servile fashion it was given the name of the emperor, and soon the entire firmament teemed with luminous points of Shi Huang-ti I, Shi Huang-ti II, Shi Huang-ti III and so on. Mathematicians labored to invent new numerical systems, complicated equations and unimaginable geometrical figures, knowing only too well their labors were sterile, of no use to anyone. Naturalists promised they would develop a tree whose crown was embedded in the ground and whose roots reached the sky, also a wheat grain as large as a fist.

"At last the emperor wished for immortality. Physicians performed cruel experiments on men and animals to discover the secret of the eternal heart, the eternal liver, eternal lungs.

"As it often happens with men of action, the emperor desired to change the face of the earth and sky so his name would be inscribed forever in the memory of future generations. He did not understand that the life of an ordinary peasant, shoemaker, or a grocer was far more worthy of respect and admiration, while he himself was becoming a bloodless letter, a symbol among countless symbols of madness and violence monotonously repeating themselves.

"After all the crimes, all the devastation he caused in human minds and souls, his own death was cruelly banal: he choked on a single grape. To remove him from the surface of the earth nature did not exert herself to produce a hurricane or deluge.

"Probably you will ask: why do I tell you all of this, and what is the connection between the story of the foreign ruler and your drop of water? I will most likely answer you not very clearly or coherently, hoping you will understand the words of a man who is full of forebodings and anxiety.

"I am afraid that you and others like you are setting out on a dangerous journey which might bring humanity not only advantages but also great, irreparable harm. Haven't you noticed that the more the means and tools of observation are perfected, the more distant and elusive become the goals? With each new discovery a new abyss opens. We are more and more lonely in the mysterious void of the universe.

"I know that you want to lead men out of the labyrinths of superstition and chance, that you want to give them certain, clear knowledge which according to you is the only defense against fear and anxiety. But will it really bring us relief if we substitute the word necessity for the word Providence?

"Most likely you will reproach me that our art does not solve any of the enigmas of nature. Our task is not to solve enigmas, but to be aware of them, to bow our heads before them and also to prepare the eyes for never-ending delight and wonder. If you absolutely require discoveries, however, I will tell you that I am proud to have succeeded in combining a certain particularly intensive cobalt with a luminous, lemon-like yellow, as well as recording the reflection of southern light which strikes through thick glass onto a gray wall.

"The tools we use are indeed primitive: a stick with a bunch of bristles attached to the end, a rectangular board, pigments and oils. These have not changed for centuries, like the human body and nature. If I understand my task, it is to reconcile man with surrounding reality. This is why I and my guild brothers repeat an infinite number of times the sky and clouds, the portraits of men and cities, all these odds and ends of the cosmos because only there do we feel safe and happy.

"Our paths part. I know I will not convince you, and that you will not abandon polishing lenses or erecting your tower of Babel. But allow us as well to continue our archaic procedure, to tell the world words of reconciliation and to speak of joy from recovered harmony, of the eternal desire for reciprocated love."

Portal Alamos: Where are you from? Where did you study? Who inspired you to be an artist?

Daan Hoekstra: I was born in Ohio and grew up in Upstate New York. My aunt was a professional artist and exposure to her was what first put the idea of being an artist in my mind. She encouraged me and I started drawing when I was 7 years old, learning from her advice.

In 1980 I went to the University of Dallas to study art, on an academic scholarship. I specialized in printmaking--etching and lithography. The university had a campus in Rome, Italy, where I studied the history of art and architecture. I had the opportunity to travel and see some of the important art museums in Europe: The Vatican, the Uffizi, the Prado and the Louvre.

I was enthralled with the experience and wanted to learn to paint like the old masters. I left the university and went to New Mexico to study with my uncle, a painter also. I kept searching--looking for the best painters--those few who could paint like the masters. Finally, I found Richard Lack. It was very difficult to enter his atelier. He never had more than 16 students at once. Hundreds applied, but there was only space for 4 new students each year. I got in, in 1984, and studied with Lack until 1987: human figure, drawing, oil painting...traditional art technique.

Now I can see that big things came out of a small studio. I'm proud of the accomplishments of my colleagues (other students of Lack). Daniel Graves founded the Florence (Italy) Academy of Art, which has made quite a splash in the artworld. Bruno Surdo started the School of Representational Art in Chicago. Lack's atelier gave birth to at least 10 new schools, including my little teaching studio in Navojoa.

Daan Hoekstra: I just finished almost six months of work for Hacienda de Los Santos, here in Alamos, painting murals. I'm preparing for a group exhibit--figure drawing and painting. It will travel to Morelia, Irapuato and Guanajuato. I'm still teaching in Navojoa.

Daan Hoekstra: The landscapes, the architecture and the people of Alamos, for a new event center.

Daan Hoekstra: I worked with my collegue Mark Balma. He studied with the Italian painter Pietro Annigoni. Annigoni was a legend--one of the only painters in the world dong monumental fresco murals after Diego Rivera, roughly from 1955-1985. Annigoni was known for his portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and John F. Kennedy. When Annigoni's health started going downhill, Balma was one of a very few painters in the world doing large scale fresco work, from 1985- 2000, roughly.

Daan Hoekstra: Grinding pigments, preparing the lime, mixing plaster, plastering, and working on the preparatory drawings.

Daan Hoekstra: I came here to work on murals and decorative painting at Casa de Ladrillo, a hacienda here.I worked on the project for a year.

One thing that's important — I use 19th century technique in my work. That is to say — I use ideas from the 19th century in order to create art. My goal is to use an old technique to express current ideas. The technique requires a lot of patience, observation and tranquility. So it isn't compatible with the frenetic pace of modern life. I found the tranquility in Alamos. Life is slower here and it is helping the quality of my work. I still see donkeys in the streets. I live without a phone.

There is a famous painter in Queretaro, a surrealist from Spain, named Santiago Carbonell. When asked why he came to Queretaro he answered, "To isolate myself." The creative act requires solitude at times. I'd guess he also wanted to isolate himself from the madness of the artworld.

In the US the artworld has two paths, and that's it. There is the world of commercial galleries. The market dictates, so the artist doesn't have control. The other world is that of the avant garde, which is supported by museums, universities and the government. In that world fashion dictates, so the artist doesn't have control.

Here it seems more open. That is to say — there are more possibilities, more freedom.

The first time I came to Mexico, I went to DF. I felt the city contained everything good and everything bad, humanity in it's entirety, without masks. An artist needs to see life unmasked, without lies. Here in Mexico, people don't hide from death, but they don't hide from life either. In the States, everything is hidden. The bad wears a mask and the good doesn't have room to breathe, trapped inside of so many categories, so much uniformity of thought.

I saw all this and it gave me hope. In spite of the problems, what is good is very apparent here.

I see more stars in the sky here. There is more music in my life, more love. What is more important? Life and art need the same nourishment.

Daan Hoekstra: I started exhibiting in 1979 and won an honorable mention in a national contest--the Scholastic Art Awards. Since then, I've done 1 or 2 or 3 group exhibitions each year, until 1999, when I had my first solo exhibition. I was focused on murals. Exhibiting easel paintings wasn't a priority.

In Mexico, I started to exhibit more. From 2001 to 2006, I've done 5 solo exhibitions, and something like 15-20 group exhibitions.

Daan Hoekstra: Here, in the galleries of Alamos, and in Atenea Gallery in San Miguel de Allende.

Daan Hoekstra: I'm planning to start a series of fresco painting workshops with a friend. I'll probably have some more mural work. I'm anxious to get back to the studio and focus on my personal creative work. I'm dreaming of a week at the beach.

Response from Christian Norberg-Schulz, published in Spring of 1986, posted: (4/15/2006)

Just how old is the idea that creation involves the reconcilliation of apparent opposites?

"The Pythagoreans, whose sentiment Plato often adopts, therefore define music as a perfect union of contrary things: unity in multiplicity, accord in discord. For music does not only coordinate rhythm and modulation, but puts order into the whole system; its end is to unite and coordinate, and God is also the orderer of discordant things, and His greatest work is to concilliate among themselves, by the laws of music and medicine, things which are hostile to one another."

— Theon of Smyrna, 1st century AD, Exposition 5, quoted in The Lindisfarne Letter 14, Homage to Pythagoras.

"Zeus, when about to create, changed himself into Love: for in composing the order of the world out of the contraries, he brought it to concord and friendship, and in all things he set the seed of identity and the unity that pervades everything."

— Pherecydes of Syros, 6th century BC, thought to be the teacher of Pythagoras, quoted by C. Bamford, introduction of Nature Word, by R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz.

"The arts are the salt of the earth; as salt relates to food, the arts relate to technology." ---Goethe

"Science demands that phenomena be observed with the unemotional accuracy of a weighing machine, while artistic accuracy demands that things be observed by a sentient individual recording the sensations produced in him by the phenomenon of life." — Harold Speed

"The Great Manuscript of Design which everywhere we descry, on the wings of birds, on the shells of eggs, in clouds, in snow, in crystal, in rock formations, in frozen water, within and upon mountains, in plants, in beasts, in men, in the light of day..." — Novalis

"Knowledge is not by deduction, but Immediate by perception of sense at once." — William Blake

"In every object there is inexhaustible meaning: the eye sees in it what the eye brings means of seeing." — Goethe

"The masterpieces of man were brought forth in obedience to the same laws as the masterpieces of Nature." ---Goethe

"What do you think of the world? You, the prism, measure the light of the world; it burns through your mind to throw a different spectroscopic reading onto white paper than anyone else anywhere can throw. Let the world burn through you." — Ray Bradbury, The Zen of Writing

"Only when he no longer knows what he is doing does the painter do good things."---Edgar Degas

"We must draw our standards form the natural world, admitting there is something in the order of being that evidently exceeds all our competence" — Vaclav Havel

"The scientist's religious feeling takes the form of a rapturous amazement at the harmony of natural law, which reveals an intelligence of such superiority that, compared with it, all systematic thinking and acting of human beings is an utterly insignificant reflection."---Albert Einstein

"Inspiration is in seeing a part of the whole with the part of the whole in you."---Kahlil Gibran

"The continuation of modernity threatens the very survival of life on our planet" — David Ray Griffin, Center for a Postmodern World

"Art arises when the secret vison of the artist and the manifestation of nature agree to find new shapes."---Kahlil Gibran

"Ignorant men raise questions that wise men answered a thousand years ago."--Goethe

"Every artist who aims truly to represent the ideas and emotions which come to him when he is in the presence of nature, is in the process of his own spiritual development and is a benefactor of his race." — George Inness

"He who cannot draw on three thousand years is living hand to mouth." — Goethe


	Mayo Deer Dancer

Man....this website construction is frustrating. It makes me want to....scream. Uploaded some interesting images today, like this one, of the Mayo Deer Dance.

Fresco Update

Slaking quicklime for fresco

Teresa Urrea Healing the Sick

Teresa Urrea

Lime Pit!