I have an epic obsession with the Lotería.
Lotería: Spanish for lottery. A Mexican board game like Bingo, but using pictured cards instead of numbered balls. There are 54 different cards in a deck.
My obsession began back in 2007 when I bought a shower curtain that had the Lotería on it. I thought they were some type of Mexican Tarot. Luckily, I have several friends wise in the Lotería ways who educated me. I've since thrown the shower curtain away, but the obsession remains. I think it was the randomness of the images that grabbed my interest the most, with things like the skull, the boot, and the little black man. I fell in love with the style. The very idea of the Lotería.
Eventually, I started making my own version of the cards to use in a collage. I made 20 various cards with construction paper and colored pencils.
The cards are based on my own interpretations of the original deck, so there are things like a pentagram for La Estrella and a skeletal version of ‘American Gothic’ for La Muerte. I never finished the collage, but moved on to do a larger Lotería inspired piece...
La Dama, my masterpiece of cardboard and chicken bones. Making this piece was a religious experience for me. I never really knew why I was making it, but I needed to do it. About a year later, I realized the subject was Santa Muerte... but that's another obsession for later, kids...
Eventually, my intension was to do grand pieces like this for all 54 Lotería cards. You know, like how Sufjan Stevens was going to write 50 albums dedicated to all 50 states...
So that idea fell away quickly. But I was committed to doing a full series of cards. I decided acrylic on 12x12 canvas was the natural middle ground between three inch cards and collage monsters. I also decided to make this series more about the culture that the Lotería comes from. I wanted the whole thing to FEEL like Mexico. In themes. In colors. In style.
So this series is all about bright colors, bold black lines, and faux "tin mirror" frames.
Faux tin frames. Dr Pepper cans, individually painted canvas squares, and an unhealthy amount of Super Glue... and bits of my skin, which I think will someday add to the value. Notice the Art Nouveau style card title? Now that I've figured out the frames, I'm moving through them quickly. Well, quick for me. In two years I've completed one piece, finished three canvases (still waiting for frames), and half painted another canvas. Hmmm...
... Teresa Villegas created her lotería series in two years, one year of research and one year of production... a full set of 54 cards...
I think I'll be getting back to my can cutting now.
