“It’s a good thing that Lake Chapala is the epicenter of serendipity and coincidence,” says artist Kim Tolleson, “because you sure can’t tell what will happen here next.”
Five years ago, the whole back wall behind Tolleson’s big desk in his Santa Cruz, California earth décor office was covered with the guitars he’d been collecting.
Three years ago, Tolleson had given up the collection, the desk, the office and Santa Cruz. He’s hung on to some of his creative projects and is enjoying being more involved in the creation than the business. As part of the ethnic design and crafting, he’s ordered 35 decent, playable new guitars from Paracho, Michoacán and was painting on some of them and inviting local artists to paint on others.
That was how Tolleson met artist Emily Allen, who had recently moved to Ajijic from the Bay area. She signed on to help with the guitar-painting project – and through some of that coincidence or serendipity, as stayed on with Tolleson, in the gallery and at home.
“That first gallery was between the Ajijic pier and Yves’ former restaurant location,” Tolleson says. “He was caring for Vino Blanco, the white Kentucky burro that had belonged to a guy everyone called Pedro Loco. The burro was always outside my windows, under the big trees. After weeks of watching her antics and expressions, I picked up a broken guitar and quickly painted her image onto it. I said to Emily, ‘Well that was fun,’ and then went back to work.”
The thing was that Tolleson couldn’t get Vino and her droll comical expressions out of his head. As he worked on another of the guitars, which were selling as quickly as they were finished, another idea popped up.
“Emily and I would be at lunch or dinner and one of us would come up with another funny way to depict Vino. We didn’t intend to seriously paint her, but the ideas just kept coming up. Finally, I did a second piece. I pulled out a small canvas and painted Vino as a waiter with a bow tie with a tray and glasses and a bottle of wine, white of course.”
As it turned out, the next painting was a turning point. Tolleson had noticed that Vino Blano had developed the bad habit of chewing on the throws and blankets the weaving ladies were displaying on the line between the trees on the beach.
The affable Tolleson grinned as he remembered painting a dazed-looking Vino Blanco peeking through the row of colorful striped serapes. “Yves walked past the window just as I was finishing it and yelled, ‘I love it, I want it!’
“Yves hung that bright piece in a dark corner of the restaurant and everyone else loved it, too. It’s been one of our most popular pieces. It did brighten that corner of the terrace, and we were so honored that he wanted to hang this work next to the work of his father.”
There have been plenty of other popular pieces in the past couple of years – around 130 in Tolleson’s estimation. Yves now owns about 30 of them, and some of the newer ones are on display at Yves’ current restaurant on the Carretera.
“This has just been bigger than I could have ever guessed it could be,” Tolleson says. “That is largely due to Yves’ prowess as a salesman. Plus, there are some he just can’t let go. The rest are gone. The paintings of Vino Blanco and the newer ones of her with her son, Martini, (who wears an olive on his collar) are in New Zealand, South Africa, Europe, and of course, the United States and Canada. The burros are traveling. You know, I think it says something special about people who love these burros. They’re just so real.”
There’s more serendipity to this story, of course. Earlier this year when Yves found Martini, who is Vino Blanco’s son, the reunion was tremendous for the two animals. It was also emotional for Yves and for Allen and Tolleson, who although they hadn’t known Martini as a new born, have watched the mother and son get to know each other and grow closer as the days pass.
While Martini is appearing solo in some of his own paintings, the big hits are the works, like “White Christmas” in which the two burros are facing, wearing red bells around their necks and holiday blankets. Poinsettias, the lake and the mountains form the background. The burro paintings sell for 2,000 to 3,000 pesos. Allen and Tolleson also are doing Giclée, prints on canvas which sell for just 1,000 pesos.
“The giclée is great for travelers,” said Allen. “They are easy for the suitcase.”
“White Christmas” is one of the four holiday mugs Allen and Tolleson have produced and are selling at Yves for 120 pesos each. “Naughty but Nice” shows Vino decorating a Christmas tree while nibbling the top section. There are a total of 15 of the cups. Each design is colorful with the flowers and scenes of lakeside and with Vino Blanco and Martini in starring roles. Area visitors are snapping up the mugs as souvenirs nearly as quickly as expats and locals are buying them for their own morning coffee or afternoon tea.
Allen, whose background is in canvas on oils, is now working with Tolleson on the Vino Blanco pieces. They both enjoy the imagination process that the burro project provides.
“It takes us totally out of the day and out of the ordinary. We always have paper and a Sharpie. We’re doing sketches all the time as new ideas build on each other.
Image“Best of all, this is happy art, fun art, we’re doing something to make people smile, plus we’re in the middle of a big old burro love affair. You just never know will happen next here at Lake Chapala.”