ASA
Ajijic legacy artist Jesus Victoriano Lopez Vega will be the featured speaker at the Monday, April 6 meeting of the Ajijic Society of the Arts (ASA). During the meeting, which begins at 10 a.m. at La Bodega, Lopez Vega will share with the group his lifetime in art.
In 1968, at the age of six, Lopez Vega began attending the children’s art program at the Biblioteca Publica de Ajijic. Neill James Campbell and Angelita Aldana had started the program for area children in 1954.
For the past 20 years the local artist has volunteered to help with the program – co-funded by ASA – at the Lake Chapala Society.
Lopez Vega works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture and etching. Over the years he has participated in international individual and collective exhibitions and his work is held in public and private collections. Among his works are “Visual Chronicle of Portland” and “We Speak” in Portland, Oregon, “El Ultimo Grito,” in San Francisco, California, “Angeles Mestisos” in Genk, Belgium, and “Angel Nocturno” in Pratola Peligna, Italy.
Lopez Vega has painted murals in Portland and Los Angeles, as well as in Chapala and Ajijic. He is the co-founder of Centro Cultural Axixic, where he created his latest mural, “El Nacimiento de Teo-michicihualli.”
Recently, Lopez Vega has been working on an article, “Origins and Legends from Axixic.” He has already published several articles in local news magazines.
For more information about well-known Ajijic artists visit www.arteajijic.net.
Train station
The anniversary of the debut of the Guadalajara-Chapala railroad will be celebrated on Wednesday, April 8, starting at 6 p.m. at the former Chapala train station, now the Centro Cultural Gonzalez Gallo.
The train station’s 95th birthday party will feature an appearance by the Orquesta Tipicia de Chapala, along with an impromptu entertainment program involving any local musicians who wish to participate.
Visitors will also have a chance to see the miniature railway model in the garden along with a special display put on by model train buffs.
Folks planning to attend are encouraged to bring their own food and drinks and some extra snacks to share in a potluck buffet.
Hard Travelin’
New York performer Randy Noojin portrays singer, songwriter and activist Woody Guthrie in “Hard Travelin’ with Woody” to be presented at Club Exotica on April 18, 7 p.m.
Hop a box car through the Dustbowl with Guthrie and commune with the spirit, stories and songs of America’s iconic folksinger, saint of the workingman and poet of the people in this critically acclaimed multimedia one-man play.
Noojin comes to lakeside just off a 40-city tour of a show featuring legendary Woody Guthrie songs such as “This Train is Bound for Glory,” “This Land is Your Land” and many others.
His depiction of Guthrie’s music helps to recall a protest strategy the singer had used during the Great Depression, when social, political and economic inequality had been allegedly engendered by a small rich elite. During that era, noted the Huffington Post, Guthrie had “romanticized the deeds of outlaws such as Jessie James, Pretty Boy Floyd, Calamity Jane or the Dalton Gang both as legitimate acts of social responsibility and as ‘the ultimate expression of protest,’ thus transforming the outlaw into an archetypal partisan in a fight against those who were held responsible for the worsening social and economic conditions.”
Noojin has been invited to perform at the Actor’s Theatre in Louisville, Ensemble Studio Theatre, Southern Appalachian Repertory Theatre, the 45th Street Theater and many others.
Tickets at 200 pesos are on sale at Diane Pearl’s and Yoly’s Beauty Salon, Bugambilias Plaza.
The show is sponsored by the Lake Chapala Chapter of Democrats Abroad Mexico.