Templo de la Compania, Zocalo, Oaxaca, Oil on Canvas, 50 x 70 cm 2018
RICHARD MICHAELS Berkshire Artist in Oaxaca Interview by Harryet Candee Richard, tell us exactly where you are? Richard Michaels: Tracy and I live in the city of Oaxaca (the city is the capital of the state of Oaxaca). It is 5,000 feet above sea level, 6 hours from the Pacific coast, Oaxaca is a one-hour flight south of Mexico City. How best can you describe your personal connection and offerings Oaxaca gives you? Richard: For me that connection developed over time: In 1995 Tracy wanted us to take a 3-week prehoneymoon excursion to Mexico City, Oaxaca, and the Oaxaca coast. The arts of Oaxaca had been calling her for years. While thoroughly enjoying the adventure, I did not know if I would return. Tracy on the other hand said she didn’t want to leave, while swinging in a hammock overlooking the ocean. In 2010 Tracy went back to Oaxaca for a month. I joined her for 10 days. During those days I caught 8 • MARCH 2020 THE ARTFUL MIND
the Oaxaca bug. The art, pace of life, climate, and warmth of the people got to me. More than simply “art” it was the way art appreciation and understanding saturated the culture. An example fast forwarding 7 years: A young travel agent visited me frequently as I painted a church on a corner of the Zocalo. One day she asked what I thought about the small group of people I had just painted walking in the distance. I said I felt so so about it. I asked, “What do you think?” She said “they detract from the painting.” I removed them. Immediately my eye moved freely throughout the canvas again! The people of Mexico from 5 to 85, have grown up with art in their bones, developing discerning and appreciative eyes. Following the 2010 trip by a few years of increasingly longer visits, Tracy said she wanted to live in Oaxaca. And she didn’t want us to live in an area dominated by other Gringos, but in the midst of
Oaxaquenos. While it became full time for Tracy it was back and forth between home in Great Barrington, work in NYC and family in NJ for me. I was passionate about teaching and coaching, was a Founder and Director of Coaching for Transformation and loved the Berkshires. Finally in 2017 I made a deeper commitment to family, art and the change in lifestyle Oaxaca represented. In 2018 we sold our house in Great Barrington and I joined Tracy full time minus family and friend visits to the US. What spiritual connections with the heartbeat of Mexican life have you made so far? Richard: The spiritual connections are interwoven into the streets, public and exhibition spaces and people talked about above. Although spiritual connection exists in many places it is also a rare commodity in this day and age. And of course, not a
