Description
Aydee Rodriquez Lopez is an international recognized painter from the Costa Chica region of Mexico. She did not start painting professionally until her 40’s, although it was always a life-long dream. Being left a teenaged orphan, with a younger brother to raise, Aydee spent her youth working several jobs until she saved to send her brother to college.
After taking care of her grandmother in her last days, Aydee made a promise to her that she would take up painting full time and has kept a vow to paint every day since.
She uses traditions passed from generations and her AfroMexican culture as an inspiration for her paintings.
Tatachu is a painting with deep religious significance. In the XVI century the local indigenous Mixtec population resisted the Catholic church teachings. The Catholic priests left a wooden sculpture of a black Jesus that was later found and taken to Huaxpaltepec, where a church was built. There have been several miracles attributed to the sculpture and every August 6th a religious pilgrimage celebrates the day it was found. Since the XVI century, this community has been celebrating a mixture of pre-Hispanic beliefs with Catholicism, that was brought by the Spaniards.
Aydee, influenced by the strong mixed religious beliefs of the region, paints Jesus carrying a cactus cross at one of the stations of the cross that is depicted in traditional Catholic churches.
This painting had special significance to Aydee and is dedicated on the back to her brother, Jesus Arroyo Lopez.
