Working in the tradition of alebrijes, Mexican duo Zeny and Reyna create this striking sculpture of a deer. Crouched on its back haunches, the deer is carved by hand of copal wood. This beautiful creature is diligently painted by hand with intricate motifs and a predominant grey color. Small parts are separated for shipping to protect from breakage.

Alebrijes are a fairly recent Mexican art form, attributed to Pedro Linares. Unconscious due to illness in 1936, he was presumed near death and yet his dreams were extremely vivid. He tells of a place where all was peaceful and quiet until all of a sudden there appeared a lion with an eagle's head, a rooster with bull's horns and a donkey with butterfly wings. They kept screeching "alebrije, alebrije!" and Pedro began running away. He encountered a man who told him it was not yet his time to be there are and he should continue running towards the exit. In this dream Pedro climbed out of a window and regained consciousness.

Product Features

• Warning: Choking Hazard. Small parts -- not for children under 3 years.
• Product Dimension: 9.25" H x 6.5" W x 4.6" D
• Product Weight: 0.1672
• Material: Copal wood
• Color: Grey
• Country of Origin: Mexico

Story behind the art:Hola! We're Zeny Fuentes and my wife, Reyna Pina. We're from a small town in Oaxaca, says Zeny by way of introduction. We both come from families dedicated to carving and painting wood in a style known as alebrije. Our parents were master carvers and they taught each of us when we were children. We studied different things too, but what we really like to do is crafting alebrijes and continuing our families' traditions.

I still recall the first piece I ever carved. It was a duck and it got sent to the Museum of Light in San Antonio! Since then, I've had the good fortune to exhibit my work in different museums and galleries in the U.S. -- the first one was in Arizona when I was only 14 years old. Now Reyna and I exhibit together, and some of our alebrijes are on display in Israel and in Germany.

Our work has also been sponsored by a prestigious paper company that depicts our wood sculptures on their stationary.

The handcrafted touch of artisan skill creates variations in color, size and design. If buying two of the same item, slight differences should be expected. Note: Color discrepancies may occur between this product and your computer screen.

Imported