Somewhere out there the Santa Muerte from Juarez is giving Jimmy Webb a new context:
By the time I get to Phoenix she'll be risin'.
She'll find the note I left hangin' on her door.
[ source ]
From PBS Newshour: An Unflinching Look at Violence in Juarez:
When I first spoke to artist Alice Leora Briggs last spring, Juarez, Mexico, was under siege by rampant gang- and drug-related violence. Briggs had just completed an arts residency in southern New Mexico and frequently traveled the 30 minutes to witness the carnage and aftermath left by a recent spate of murders in and around the border town.
She visited so called "death houses," sites of mass executions, and spent time studying the victims' remains in the city morgue.
"One room is entirely full of bullets from the executions," Brigss said. "I saw an autopsy of a young man who was executed. There was a story in the New York Times about the morgue a day or so after I was there. The photos of the freezers had everything looking tidy. They must have cleaned for them. I was glad to get a different view....The bodies were all akimbo and not neatly wrapped up.... I see things on the news and compare it to what I saw and they do not always jive."
In response to what she saw, Briggs picked up her etching knives and, using an old etching technique from the 13th century called sgraffito, cut through dark wood to reveal images of what was laid before her eyes.
Alongside the graphic images, Briggs also incorporates medieval or renaissance scenes like an old-master draftsman. In a more recent conversation, Briggs explained what drew her to violent depictions: "The first time that I went to Italy, I realized that I was part of an extended tradition in Western art. I mean, you go to Italy, walk into any church, and the subject matter is about torture and death and human suffering. And these are things I think maybe are not entertaining, but certainly are worthy of our attention."
Be sure to check out the slideshow: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/indepth_coverage/entertainment/art/Juarez/index.html?type=flash
Thank you, Doe.
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