Working in the folk art style of alebrije sculptures, Mexican duo Pablo and Lucy Mendez create this striking addition to your home decor. Carved of copal wood and painted by hand with dot motifs in fiery tones of red, yellow, and orange, a lithe tree frog splays its limbs.

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: 

• Dimension: 3.8" H x 7.75" W x 4.1" D
• Weight: 7.75
• Color: Yellow
• Material: Copal wood
• 0.015400001
• Hand-crafted item -- color, size and/or motif may vary slightly
• 7 grams 9.6 cm H x 20 cm W x 10.5 cm D
• Made in Mexico

Story Behind the art:
Update (August, 2019) We are a young married couple who inherited the knowledge of carving and painting copal wood alebrijes. We have gradually perfected our technique, which we have passed down to our children. We have been working for some years with this incredible technique that we learned. In our community in Oaxaca, copal carving is a tradition for families. We have several goals, one of which is to teach and share this beautiful art in our workshop. And it's how we learn more. You have allowed us to export our alebrijes to any part of the world, permitting us to concentrate on the quality and inspiration we give each piece. This has led us to hire family members for wood carving. We also have copal tree plantations that have allowed us to preserve this beautiful tree that has given us so much, and that was facing the possibility of extinction. Original Artisan Story We are best friends as well as husband and wife. Together, we carve Oaxaca's traditional alebrijes, fanciful and fantastical creatures and images crafted from found wood and painted by hand in bright colors. We project creativity, innovation and quality through our work. We believe it's important to be kind, honest and responsible when working, and we seek to improve our efforts day by day. Crafts are a pillar for the economy of many families in our community. These workshops are made up of grandparents, parents and their children. In our case, this craft have been handed down from generation to generation. Our parents and uncles taught us and we are now teaching our children so that this art doesn't die out. Striking out on our own has been a bit difficult because we've just started from the ground up. Our desire to get ahead has motivated us to improve our alebrijes and we feel that competition is good. To learn this craft, you need to be very dedicated and patient. Our greatest challenge is innovating to create new designs. Our inspiration comes from everything that surrounds us, like nature and those moments in life that can express a feeling. We use natural branches of copal wood but sometimes work in willow, cedar and zompantle. I shape the creatures and images. We treat the wood and, when a piece contains imperfections, we make a sawdust paste to fill in the gaps.

The handmade 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