¡Colores!; 305; Santero; Interview with Marie Romero Cash; Tape 2

It's probably easier for you to read your hand right in the middle of it. Yeah. But you're doing great. You're not doing much to make your life. No. Okay. Why would you like us to? No, not really. Welcome. How's it going? I got a drink for a salad, a cup of coffee, a dinner or less. You know, I got your cycles of not being hungry at all for a week or so. And then no matter how much I eat, I'm hungry all the time. Like a week later. I don't know. We were talking about the sales of the cross and how you felt like you were transforming kind of as you were painting it. Mm-hmm. And I can remember what the queue was. Oh, excuse me.

And if you just talked about 13th Station. I can remember what it was. Going back there to the Gunky Sutherland. But nonetheless, if we lead back into it. During the entire process of painting, I started painting the stations with holy water. Because I felt this project was going to be in a church. It would be blessed. It would probably be there for more than a century. God willing. And as I painted the stations with holy water, I found that the holy water would mix with a watercolor far differently than regular water would. And my neighbor had given me some water from lords. When I ran out of holy water, I went over and I said, do you have any holy water? It's like going for a cup of sugar. And she says, no, but I have some from lords. I said, well, that'll do. So I got this little baby food jar container full of water from lords. And this was one of the things that I used to paint the 12 stations, which was the crucifixion.

And I found that as I mixed the water from lords with the red color that I was using, it took on a different appearance as blood than I thought it would have. And I found that quite uncanny to be painting and noticing that, boy, it really looks like blood. It flowed well. It stopped where I wanted to. It was quite interesting. And during this whole process of painting, I had had some really deep emotional work that I had to do. I had a death of a person I had lived with. And it was quite difficult for me to deal with, but I dealt with it through the stations. So I have always said that they were painted with holy water and tears. You know, I put my grief, my sorrow, everything that I was feeling into the stations. And consequently, I think they came out far better than if I would have just gotten up one Sunday mornings at all.

Okay, I'm going to paint the station today. It was a cleansing process of painting something that was extremely spiritual of a Christ who had suffered so extensively. And you had to depict that and put it on a panel where someone else could look at it and say, truly, you know, this man was suffering. And during one of the times that I was at the cathedral, just going back every so often to check the color on the station that was there because I couldn't bring it home. And make sure I matched it up to the stained glass windows and everything that was in the church. I walked in and there was a woman praying at the 13th station. And here I came walking up and I was going to stand right in front of it and take some notes about the color. But I found her so engrossed in her prayer in front of this 13th station.

And the thought came to me, wow, my work has actually affected another human being in such a way that she is totally involved in her petition or her prayer, whatever was going on with her. And I didn't want to interrupt that. And I stayed very quiet and walked past and sat farther back. And she was there for a considerable amount of time. This was the first time that I realized that the work I was doing was going to be viewed by other people and prayed before and they were going to get some feeling from it. The Archbishop asked me, how come Pontius Pilate and the Centurion look so friendly? They weren't mean and grave looking. The reason for that was that I tried to depict something that these people who were involved in the stations also were confused in shock.

This was a crucifixion that was going to happen right before them and it was taking steps. Everything was happening and all of a sudden they were before Pontius Pilate and the man preferably would have liked to have said, hey, come on, let's move on and get on with our lives. Let this man go, but that's not what happened. So I tried not to depict anything more than the confusion, the anxiety and the shock that was happening to the people who were involved with the stations. So if some of them look not to mean that's the reason because I was trying to evoke what they were going through and most of them were obviously going through a great deal of shock. So it was an experience for me to paint these and to feel the spirituality that people were amassing from just being around them. I was also surprised by the number of people that do like them.

And out of hundreds and hundreds of people there has maybe been just one person that has said, well gee, I don't think they fit the cathedral. And everyone else has liked them. That must give you a lot of satisfaction in a spiritual way to know that people in an art form I think that people will say, well, I like that and I buy it or I take it. When people venerate what you do and get something spiritual out of it, how does that affect you personally? It's really something that goes deep within and it touches your soul when you see somebody venerating something that you have created that is something that came from your heart. And from your soul something deep within, I try not to put myself off as being more spiritual than thou. I am just as happy and content as the next person and I consider my spirituality something very personal.

But in this type of art there is many times when you have to have a certain amount of spirituality to create something that is spiritual. And it takes a part of you with it and it sits in there in the church. And now when I go in the church I am filled with such awe of seeing all these pieces and I like to sit in the big part of the cathedral and be able to see it all there. And I am just very pleased with it. And I am always touched when I am sitting behind someone, a young child who was staring at the stations and looking at them one by one. I think that is really good because we never had that there. The church was kind of boring because you go and there was nothing that you could focus on except the front of the church. And if you are sitting way and back of course you couldn't focus on anything that was nearby. So I think it is important that now these are in there.

But it is very touching and it makes a person feel as though you have accomplished something that is quite wonderful and that you have greater expectations of your art than you had before. And I think it has affected all my art now. I think everything is better. Everything takes more care, more time. A little part of me goes into each piece and it is not done until it is done. And I think that is one of the things that has occurred throughout this project. Great. Let's stop down. Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. We are not done. Yeah, okay. I will be right back. Okay, anytime. Okay, jump. Okay. Okay. Let's do that one more time. Yeah, with the big ass.

I hope that is not hurt. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Yeah, that's not hurt. Chucky, let's get your little bone. Yeah. Let's do my leg bone. Okay. Okay.

Let's try my leg bone. Do you roll it? Yeah. Okay. Any time. Okay, wait.

Lock into the... Okay. Okay. Let's try that one more time with the hammer upgrade. We're actually doing it for that one. Me. Any time. Okay. Okay. Okay.

One more time. I didn't quite go. I was supposed to go right there, wasn't I? Yeah. Okay. I don't think we're good. Okay. Chucky can't stand the silence. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay.

Good. Hang on. It's not beat. When the head still doesn't sink. What I want to know is, what do you feel when you're carving one of these figures? Most of the time when I'm carving, there's a certain serenity that takes hold after a while. Okay. Hold on. We'll stop that for the... Okay. The question was, what do you think of when you want carving? Most of the time when I'm carving, I start becoming very serene, very quiet, and actually lose track of times. If I'm focusing on concentrating on a carving or painting, the time seems to move rather quickly, and I'm not really aware of it. I try not to think of things that are going on at this moment.

I'd have felt this on getting the work that I want to do done. Do you... You were talking about your kind of renewed sense of spirituality and renewed sense with religion and everything. Do you think about that when you're carving? Well, most of the things that I think of when I'm carving are in creating a piece that someone will be affected by. However, I have so many clients who do not want a religious piece, they want something to decorate their home. There's a different aspect in each piece. Some of these are created primarily for decoration.

Those are the folk art pieces. Others that I know will be put on a home altar and have flowers put in front of them. They take on a different meaning for me when I'm creating them. However, I have always tried to create pieces that the person themselves will determine what they're going to use it for. In other words, if it's going to be a decorative piece, then certainly it should be that. If it's going to be something that they're going to use to pray before, then they also determine that. Try not to out guess my clients. I try not to out think them and therefore the process of creating a piece is usually involved in having some part of my spirituality going into it. That makes sense.

But what have you learned by being in this, an act of art in this tradition? One of the things I've learned by being actively a participant in this tradition is that there is so much that people have to try to make sure that their children and grandchildren are aware of. You know, in a world of Nintendo and computers in the internet, there is a lot of the traditional things that go by the wayside. The family traditions, the processions, the things that are important to the culture seem to take a back burner. And having been involved in trying to keep a traditional part in the forefront has made it very important for me to make sure my children are aware of their roots, where they came from, what they're about, and having them be proud of it. I'm just going to answer one of the questions and I'll start it.

That's fine. Every warning, what's in the door? Warning? Okay.