Good Morning. Ray Patlan and The Mystery of the Missing Painting. Lets face it we all like Facebook. It’s a handy way to connect with others and to meet new and interesting people. Sometimes you even get to meet up with and connect with OLD friends in new ways. Take for instance my homeboy Ray Patlan. Ray was one of the first Mexicano/Chicano artists to create public art here in Chicago. He painted the original murals at Casa Aztlan Community Center back in 1971. Then he moved out to the west coast in 1975, taking a teaching job in San Francisco. By the time I had gotten MY start in the arts his name was already the stuff of legend. I had hoped to one day get a chance to meet him, which happened some years late in the late 80’s. I had the honor of collaborating with him on a suite of murals in the atrium at Benito Juarez High School, (my alma mater). We got along quite well. I found him to be a quite knowledgeable authority on all things mural related. I soaked up his knowledge with great enthusiasm. As the years passed I lost contact with him, it wasn’t until a year or two ago that I stumbled across his name on Facebook. We’ve been “pen pals” ever since. We are now in regular communication. Last year he had come back to Chicago to visit family, and he and I hung out for about a week. We did all sorts of Chicago things: We went and had Italian beefs at Portillo’s, went downtown to the art museum, and we took pictures at the “Cloudgate” sculpture at Millennium Park, real geeky stuff. A few weeks ago I posted on my timeline a picture of a painting experiment I had just finished. It was a small mixed media piece on panel depicting the Aztec goddess Mictecacihuatl. Everybody on my friends list seemed to like it. Ray liked it too. He saw it on my Facebook and insisted that he had to have it. Now as an artist I’m always on the edge of my finances. I tend to alternate between being cheap and being broke, so I looked for the least expensive way to send it. Fine enough. It was a small painting, only 8x10, so I figured I could throw it in an oversized envelope a put a whole bunch of stamps on it. This was a mistake. Weeks had passed and Ray had still not received the painting. It was lost in the mail. I became sad. I really wanted to believe in the Postal Service, but alas this esteemed branch of the federal government had let me down. By this time I had already finished another painting, an image of another Aztec deity, Coalticue. Again I posted a picture of it on Facebook and again everybody liked it. ...and of course Ray wanted it. This time I figured I better go “private sector” I had it sent FedEx. It was delivered to his house without incident. He loved it of course. I had asked him to post a picture of himself posing with the painting once he got it. Which he did. The results are pictured here. I’m not too sure what’s going on in this photo. I suppose Ray is trying to give the ladies a thrill. At any rate, I’m happy he has the artwork. As for the other painting, perhaps it is lost forever. Maybe its hanging in the home of some Postal Service employee. Maybe its stuck behind a mail sorting machine in Fresno. Who knows? Perhaps decades from now it will pop up somewhere. Could everyone keep an eye out for it for me please?
Posted on: Tue, 16 Sep 2014 16:03:37 +0000
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