Art From the Earth

In and around this part of Northern Nicaragua, art arises from the earth. Local artists might not have the resources to buy expensive art materials, so they use what they do have: the rocks in their back yards, the pine needles on the ground, the crinkled onion skins discarded from their last meal. From what seems like nothing, they create beautiful organic masterpieces. The following are just a few of the local artists who we've encountered.

Don Alberto Gutierrez, Rock Sculptor

Don Alberto is probably the most famous local artist. An old man with frazzled white hair who lives deep in the mountains, he has turned his back yard into a maze of sculptures carved into the faces of rock cliffs. He drops everything to take visitors on tours of his sculptures – elephants and serpents, indigenous heroes and the baby Jesus, the twin towers and mythic animals – each of which has its own story. Sprouting from the rock between these painstakingly carved sculptures are plants; Don Alberto has discovered that if he just chisels a little hole in the rock, he can plant orchids in that hole and they will grow from the rock.

Although he has never learned how to read or write, Don Alberto recites poetry to his guests. And as you walk through the jungle of plants and trees in his back yard, he dashes off the path with a spryness that defeats his age to knock down a lemon or pull up a pineapple for you. Of the few possessions he has in his tiny one-room house, Don Alberto keeps a huge stack of notebooks signed by the thousands of guests who have visited him over the years. And as he leads you among his plants and his art, he murmurs, “Que paraiso.” What a paradise.

Carmelo, La Garnacha Stone Sculptor

As you walk down the single road in the tiny village of La Garnacha, Carmelo's studio and sculpture store is one of the few stores you see. He is usually working away in his outdoor studio, carving figures from stone or wood. He creates indigenous figurines, smooth stone pots, religious wall-hangings, paperweights – all perfectly smooth, and all out of natural materials.

Carolina, Pine Needle Jeweler

The La Garnacha Association – a collection of organic farmers, cheese-makers, and artists – also sells jewelry made by a women's collective, although they live in Mosonte, about two hours north of Esteli. These ten women, who are all related in some way or another, create jewelry out of the pine needles that carpet the ground near La Garnacha. They gather up bushels of dried needles and, using thread, twist them into beautiful earrings, necklaces, and headbands. When my parents visited, my mom bought a bunch of this pine jewelry; if you are interested in ordering some, you can purchase it on her fair trade website: www.bluedoorfairtrade.org/.

Candida Gamez, Paper Maker

As Candida walks the streets of Esteli, where she lives, she always keeps an eye out for bright colors; she's never embarrassed to be seen rooting around in her neighbor's trash cans for discarded paper. Nicaragua doesn't have any kind of recycling program, so this is Candida's way of using recycling to make a living. She collects thrown-away paper and all kind of organic materials: banana leaves, flower petals, corn husks. The day that we made paper with her, we used some greenish egg cartons that someone had thrown away and some dry onion skins. She blends these up with water in a jumbo-blender and then uses a screen attached to a picture frame to create paper. When it is all dried, she makes greeting cards with this beautifully recycled paper.