The five years I lived in Mexico City before coming to Canada were a very significant period of my life. My son and daughter were born there and, because I worked in Spanish, first with hard of hearing children and later children with Down Syndrome, I developed a very personal relationship with Mexico and the people I lived and worked with.
When, twenty years later, my son, the printmaker and musician, Alec Dempster under the spell of the “son jarocho”, married a woman from Santiago Tuxtla I had the opportunity to renew my ties to Mexico, meeting new people and seeing old friends, rediscovering some places I had visited and loved, in particular the regions of Oaxaca and the state of Michoacan where most of the photographs of this series were taken.
With my camera I captured the texture of the skin of an old potter’s hands, the light and shadows framing the view of the valley of Oaxaca from Monte Alban, the rich colors of various arts and crafts: baskets and earthenware, murals or the vivid pink of two chairs. Mexican markets offer an endless source of fascination for me as a photographer and painter, as my”photomosaic” of Mexican markets shows.
My daughter, the visual artist and photographer, Marina Dempster, also got her inspiration from Mexico when a Huichol artist came to the Gardiner Museum and taught her his yarn painting technique and shared his view of the world. Mexico has a big place in my heart and mind.
