Saint Paul Public Schools
 | Home > Collection > Object of the Month > October 2007 > Find out more... |
 Some of these papermaking skills have survived today and are to be seen in popular art as well as in healing rituals. Paper called amate from the bark of mulberry and fig trees is made in the area where the states of Puebla, Hidalgo, and Veracruz meet, most notably in the town of San Pablito, Puebla. The mulberry produces a whitish paper, while the paper from the fig is dark. Men of the village peel the bark from the trees, but the women actually make the paper. The bark is washed, boiled in a large pot for several hours with ashes or lime, then rinsed and laid in lines on a wooden board. The fibers are next beaten with a stone until they fuse together into paper and are left to dry in the sun. The high demand for amate paper has resulted in the over-stripping of trees and even the poaching of bark. Much of the amate paper goes to villages in the state of Guerrero where artisans who once decorated pottery, now paint imaginative scenes of everyday life, fanciful birds, animals, and flowers on this special paper. Such paintings of varying quality are produced in abundance for the tourist trade. Some works are signed, and occasionally a gifted artist may gain considerable recognition for his work. In San Pablito amate paper is used by shamans for making cutouts of spirit beings associated with the sky, the earth, the underworld, and water for curing and fertility ceremonies. The shaman will bring them to life by breathing unto their mouths, holding them in the smoke of incense, or sprinkling them with alcohol. A vast number of seed spirits of fruits and vegetables are used to encourage good crops. These cutout figures in dark and light shades of amate are sometimes mounted and sold to tourists and collectors or even made into accordion-type books that explain the mystical ceremonies. Besides amate paper, ordinary tissue paper-cutouts of the spirits are also employed in rituals and books and provide an accent of color. Lesson Plans and other resource related to Amate Bark Paintings: http://www.home.earthlink.net/~kering/amate.html How amate paper is made http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/high/Grace-Amate.htm Lesson Plan http://www.boiseartmuseum.org/education/simulatedbark.php Lesson plan http://www.davisart.com/Portal/SchoolArts/SAdefault.aspx?curPage=BackIssues Lesson Plan |