Tin & Feather & Clay
Mexico City
9" x 4" x 6"

A few people have been by the shop and peeked in to look at the new Mexican things. When they see this bird everyone says: "How Mexican!" Really? We actually found this in the market surrounding a very important site in Mexico, many people would say the most important site in Mexico, the Cathedral of the Virgin of Guadalupe: the patron of Mexico and the celestial patron of Latin America and the empress of the Americas. The Cathedral zone is mind-blowing, not only for it's shear significance but for the numerous impressions one feels after the visit, from the devoted pilgrims crawling on their knees to the shrine to the moving escalator under the Juan Diego's cloak that was emblazoned with the Virgins image as proof of her existence, to the holy water blessings given to the masses via a large dust-brush type device which creates a shower of water. Even the Pope-mobile is there as contemporary relic. Anyway, surrounding the entrance to the site was a market for religious objects. Stall after stall held t-shirts, statues, crosses, etc. for all your religious needs. We were stumbling through the final 100 feet and came across these birds in a tiny stall, a woman was there with her collection, sitting peacefully on a tiny stool. To me she was my vision amidst the chaos, her and her birds, a welcome relief and somehow a final impression of Catholicism in Mexico.