creative gifts

A Maya woman sits with legs crossed as she works on a backstrap loom. Rocking back and forth she controls the tension as she creates an expanse of cloth. "This movement represented the human heartbeat, thus weaving was a sacred act for the ancient Maya, and weavers were considered the 'mothers of creation,'" Nicolas Chavez Sojuel explains. He works in fragrant cedar wood to depict his subject as realistically as did the pre-Hispanic ceramists of Jaina Island more than a thousand years ago in their "Female Figure with Loom." Deftly carving intricate details with superb realism, the Guatemalan artisan dresses the woman in a necklace of pinewood beads.

The most important deity in the Aztec pantheon, Tezcatlipoca is also one of the oldest, first appearing during the pre-Mexica Teotihuacan era. He is the god of fertility, of the wind, of life, of maize and of agriculture, and is said to have taught humans how to measure time and create the calendar. He is considered the antagonist of Quetzalcoatl, yet in later accounts, Quetzalcoatl is described as the black Tezcatlipoca.

Working in ceramic, Angel Cerón interprets an image depicted in the Codex Borbonicus.

The most important deity in the Aztec pantheon, Tezcatlipoca, or "Smoking Mirror," is also one of the oldest, first appearing during the pre-Mexica Teotihuacan era. He is the god of fertility, of the wind, of life, of maize and of agriculture, and is said to have taught humans how to measure time and create the calendar. He is considered the antagonist of Quetzalcoatl, yet in later accounts, Quetzalcoatl is described as the black Tezcatlipoca.

Working in polychrome ceramic, Angel Cerón depicts Tezcatlipoca as his nahual, or animal counterpart — a jaguar named Tepeyollotli.