Las Positas College to Host Master Mexican Woodcarver

Las Positas College will host Jesus Sosa, a master woodcarver and painter from Oaxaca, Mexico, at 7 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 26, in the Barbara Fracisco Mertes Center for the Arts, Rooms 4213 and 4240.  Sosa will demonstrate his work and explain the history of Alebrijes, an Oaxacan wood carving tradition. The event is free and open to the public; parking is $2.

Painted wooden carvings are some of the most popular items in Mexican folk art. Oaxaca’s wood carving tradition dates back to pre-Hispanic times. Zapotecs, indigenous people of Mexico, carved religious totems and ceremonial masks. With the arrival of the Spanish, carvers created saints, angels, crosses and altars.

Sosa, who has visited U.S. colleges, museums and galleries, is known for his painted carvings of cats, dogs, skeletons and angels. He tells the story about his first inspiration to carve after a bout with typhoid fever in the mid 1980s.  He had been very ill and unable to work for a long time. One day, as he waited in a doctor’s office, Sosa saw a medical pamphlet about parasites, including the amoeba. This tiny protozoan inspired his signature pattern for his carvings.

Sosa’s visit is sponsored by the Las Positas College Foreign Language Department which offers transfer-level courses in Spanish, American Sign Language, French and Italian. For more information, please visit the website at www.laspositascollege.edu.