Taking northwest art Beyond Aztlán

If you appreciate art, if you are an artist, heck, if you like salsa dancing or tacos, you need to swing by the Museum of Northwest Art by Sunday

The current exhibit on the main floor, “Beyond Aztlán,” showcases works of Mexican and Chicano Artists who live in the Pacific Northwest. The show ends Sunday, June 12, so don’t dawdle. It’s worth it.

I swung through the museum to take a peek. Then, when I got home, I Goggled “Aztlán” and fell into a rabbit hole.

Aztlán, so says Wikipedia, was once considered a mythical homeland. But now, supported by archeological discoveries, is believed to be lands historically inhabited by Central Mexico’s Aztec people who migrated to Northern Mexico and the Southeastern United States. The word means “land of the heron.”

As I shot out into cyberspace, I imagined myself an Aztec or Nahua tribal woman, fleeing drought-stricken Northern Mexico, dragging my kids with me, dropping and breaking pottery along the way so archeologists could later prove the Aztec ancestral myth.

Thirty minutes later, I remind myself, this article is supposed to be about MoNA. But a little background never hurts.

“Beyond Aztlán” showcases fifteen Chicano and Mexican artists from Nootka Sound in British Columbia to California including the works of Atanasio Echeverria Goday, a distinguished painter of plants and animals during the 1700s.

Alma Gomez’s “Los Compadres,” oil on panel, of four Mexican men wearing white shirts, drinking out of water glasses, smoking cigarettes, leaning against a powder blue 1964 Ford Falcon took me back to my teenage years and a moonlit night.

A long forgotten memory bubbled up fresh as yesterday into my mind: After a long day of strawberry picking, I was standing in the back of some migrant cabins. Several young workers were playing guitars, singing in Spanish, smoking and drinking, leaning against cars, the moon just peaking over Mt. Baker. I swooned. I was only fifteen. Of course I swooned. Looking at “Los Compadres” I could hear a guitar playing. How did Alma Gomez do that?

Back at the museum, up the winding staircase is another exhibit: “Robert Flynn: Art from the Permanent Collection.” It features sculpture and paintings by Robert Flynn as well as others who heavily impacted his art. Next to Flynn will be a Guy Anderson, a Ryder or Pollock that clearly shows the influence between artists - all from MoNAs permanent collection.

Lauro H. Flores curated “Beyond Aztlán.” MoNA’s Associate Curator, Chloe Dye Sherpe, curated the Robert Flynn exhibit.