Elephant Dream

Mexican artisans Jesus and Roxana Hernandez honor the alebrije tradition of the town of San Martín Tilcajete in Oaxaca with this delightful little elephant. While the figurine's shape may not be within the realm of the fantastical, its hand painted coloring certainly is. Its dreamy turquoise hue is accented with orange, pink, and purple geometric designs. The pachyderm is carved by hand from copal wood.

It is said that Oaxaca's alebrije tradition descends directly from Mexico City papier mache artisan Pedro Linares (1906-1992). When he was 30, he became seriously ill and fell into a sort of coma. While he was unconscious, he had a most fantastic dream. He was caught between the land of the living and the dead; the place looked like a forest and was populated with creatures with body parts belonging to different animals. The creatures repeatedly uttered the word alebrije, and when Linares woke up, he recreated these figures in vivid colors using papier mache techniques and called them alebrijes . His work became famous and eventually influenced artisans in the state of Oaxaca who decided to craft alebrijes using traditional wood carving methods and according to that region's world vision.