Xila

Sheila Matthews I met a couple of years ago when she bought a house in my block. It turns out she too is from Texas and so we set off in search of the taco al carbon mecca that had eluded me for so many years. Most of the year she lives in Bodrum, Turkey where she excavates ship wrecks.

"Archaeologist, diver, ship reconstructor, author, mapping expert, illustrator, traveler, Sheila seems always to be in demand. Where in the world does she also find the time for her passion, riding horses! "

James Brown

A couple of years after I moved to Merida there was a great house around the corner from me. I kept trying to get different friends to buy it and no one did. One day I heard it had been sold. It turns out James Brown and his wife Alexandra bought it! I had lost touch with him for about 15 years. I first came to know of James through his paintings in a little gallery in the East Village called Naturemorte in the early 80's. That was before I became a failed artist. I met James just before I moved to Paris in 1985. Then he turned up in Paris a couple of years later. He still has a great studio on Rue des Plantes and mostly works in Paris but soon he plans to do more work in Mexico. For a couple of years that house was piled to the ceiling with all of their possessions from the NY studio and the hacienda in Oaxaca. So for a couple of years they always stayed with me and Josh while they were here in Merida. Then in 2008 the Browns bought the house in front of their house and that house has a house behind it which opens onto an alley. The new house is James studio and storage. The Alley house belongs to his son Dagenhart who spent his gap year here in Merida. I long for the days when they will at least linger here through the spring and return in the fall. Winter is too short!

Vija Celmins

Webmaker and birdwatcher Vija Celmins finally ended her search for a home in Merida. After two years of ardent searching just at the moment when she was going to make an offer on a house in my neighborhood of Ermita a bigger better house popped up in Mejorada and she grabbed it. The lawyer was dragged out of bed early Sunday morning. The papers were signed and Vija was off to Chichen Itza for the rest of the day. She spent the night at Hacienda Chichen and was up before dawn on the bird walk. By noon she was back on a plane to New York. We finished renovating her house in the winter of 2008.

Here is a link to her show in NY at McKee Gallery through June 25, 2010. This is her first gallery show in NY since 2001. She paints that slowly and perfectly.