The Anatomical Studies at Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes: A Mini-Essay

     In 1937, Felipe Cossío del Pomar, an exiled Peruvian artist, arrived in San Miguel with the hopes of establishing a Latin-American art school. With financial support from Mexico’s President, Lázaro Cárdenas, the artist utilized the partially demolished Convento de Concepción – a former nunnery and temporary camp for the Mexican army – as the site for his Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes. With the aid of Stirling Dickinson, an American Cossío had hired as the university’s art director, the institution flourished, drawing wealthy students from Mexico’s interior and featuring numerous distinguished speakers (including Pablo Neruda and Diego Rivera). Over time, the university’s global reputation grew and, as Kevin Delgado highlights, it gave birth to a notable community of artists in San Miguel. In 1945, as the Peruvian government demanded its exiles return, Cossío sold the school to two Italian brothers. The act, John Virtue stresses, led to the institution’s demise. Signing a contract with the United States government, the brothers began offering special rates to soldiers returning from World War II. This, coupled with a 1948 article in Life magazine which touted the university’s prestige and the cheap cost of living in San Miguel, spawned a flood of over 6,000 veterans and their families. The influx prompted a major shift in curriculum and sparked unrest with San Miguel's locals.
     While Cossío and his colleagues focused on traditional artwork and the preservation of ancestral crafts, the brothers, in an effort to boost attendance, incorporated more sensational courses, including nude portraiture and controversial still lifes utilizing the graves surrounding the former nunnery. If fact, the Life article prominently showcased the later, capturing student Loretta Hardesty standing amid the dilapidated graveyard as she sketched the discarded bones. As Scott Carney explains, the scene – for the magazine’s readers and those veterans flocking to San Miguel – was nothing more than an intriguing advertisement for the school that featured a beautiful young woman leisurely drawing the town’s neglected dead. As Carney states, “it doesn’t matter how the bones left their graves, only that they were good subjects for anatomical studies.” What these individuals failed to see, as both Carney and Virtue emphasize, was the flagrant disregard of the sacred: the bodies themselves, the hallowed ground in which they rested, and the reverence both held in Mexican society, particularly during la Dia de los Muertos. Indeed, for many citizens of San Miguel, the school’s new anatomical still lifes were not artistic exercises, but a gross disregard of the culture and its beliefs. For them, it made the dead and the societal veneration of them into a cold, inanimate subject. The villagers’ disdain, though, proved ephemeral. Toward the end of the 1940s, the United States government discovered the funds were being embezzled by the school’s new owners. The consequences were swift, but efficient: the doors to Escuela Universitaria de Bellas Artes were permanently closed; the faculty and students were reluctantly dispersed; the dreams of Cossío del Pomar were dismantled; and the bodies of the surrounding cemetery were allowed to slip solemnly back into their quiet slumber removed from lingering artists and charcoal-covered canvasses. 

Works Referenced

Carney, Scott. The Red Market: On the Trail of the World’s Organ Brokers, Bone Thieves, Blood Farmers, and Child Traffickers. New York: MJF Books, 2011.

Delgado, Kevin. Explorer’s Guide San Miguel de Allende and Guanajuato: A Great Destination. 2nd ed. Woodstock, VT: The Countryman Press, 2011.

“GI Paradise.” Life. January 1948: 56-58.

Virtue, John. Leonard and Reva Brooks: Artists in Exile in San Miguel de Allende. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2001.

Severed Fingers

$10 - $12 (based on 2015 prices)

Makes five fingers

When my little brother and I began yard haunting, it was easy to find realistic-looking body parts at local party shops. Over the years, though, the appearance of fake limbs has become more and more pathetic. Now, to acquire something believable, you have to make your own, buy it at an expensive special-effects store, or locate a hapless drifter. Since the last two options are impracticable (no one has the money for those stores), this project developed from my own attempts at self fabrication.

• Five vinyl fingers
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in burgundy*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in coral *
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in dark red*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in deep maroon*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flesh tone*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in light pink*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat white*

1. On a newspaper-lined surface, apply three even coats of flesh-tone paint to the fingers. Although I used three, you may want more or less based on your desired coverage.

2. Give the fingers a smudging of coral paint, focusing primarily on the tips and around the knuckles. Use your own skin patterns or those found in a medical textbook for reference. Also, I discovered that applying a small amount of paint to your thumb and index finger and rubbing it onto the prop works well.

3. Dab light pink paint onto the nails. You may want to pat the excess with a paper towel, working with the coverage until it achieves a natural look. 

4. Smudge dark red paint around the tips of the fingers and along their cuticles. Here, too, patting the paint around the cuticles helps to blend it into the light pink.

5. Brush a band of white paint along the tips of the nails. Again, it may prove useful to reference your own hand or a medical textbook.

6. Cover the severed ends of the fingers with several even coats of deep maroon paint. I used two; however, you may want more or less depending on your coverage preferences.

7. Using a brush with splayed bristles, apply a smattering of burgundy paint around the wounds and up the sides of the fingers.

8. For additional detail, you can create random abrasions along the fingers by dabbing burgundy paint with a splayed-bristle brush and adding dark red paint to the centers.

9. The fingers work well by themselves or you can use them to build other props: create holes around the stumps and thread twine through them to fashion a necklace; place them in a monster's gnarled mouth; or allow them to take center stage in a specimen display.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.

Fake Blood

$3 - $5 (based on 2016 prices)

Makes eight ounces of blood

For years, my brother and I bought fake blood from party stores. Although the pre-mixed bottles were convenient, they were rather expensive, especially if the haunt involved chaotic bloodbaths. We stumbled on this recipe a while ago. Once you perfect the blending process, you can achieve realistic results. To do this, add the red food coloring slowly, gradually creeping up on the sanguine color. You can also substitute the blue food coloring for green or yellow to give the blood different tones.

• One cup corn syrup
• One tablespoon water
• Two tablespoons red food coloring
• Half a tablespoon blue food coloring
  

1. In a plastic container (because the food coloring will stain, use something disposable or that you won’t mind dying), combine the corn syrup and water, adding the red food coloring slowly to the mixture until it achieves the sanguine hue you desire. To give the blood further density, add blue food coloring and mix well.

2. You can thicken the mixture by adding small amounts of corn starch or red toothpaste. Likewise, you can thin the blood by adding more water. 

• Helpful hint: to reduce the stain’s impact, add dish soap into the mixture. Keep in mind, though, that this will not wholly prevent the dye from staining and it will make the fake blood inedible.

"Poisonous Fruit" (A Poem)

Between 1807 and 1850, Elizabeth Turner penned six books of verse: The Cowslip, The Crocus, The Daisy, The Pink, The Rose, and Short Poems. With their accompanying woodcut illustrations, the texts, as Daniel Hahn emphasizes, were intended "to give [young readers] examples of good and bad behavior and its rewards and punishments." Often times, these cautionary tales ended with misfortune. In The Daisy, for example, Miss Helen falls down a well and drowns after carelessly running and ignoring her surroundings. Despite their morbid nature, Turner's works were wildly popular during the time of their publications, gracing the shelves of many nurseries and becoming required reading for children. By the beginning of the twentieth century, however, the somber parables became comedic nostalgia, with The New Child's Guide to Knowledge (1911) parodying Miss Helen's unfortunate fate and E.V. Lucas' introduction to a 1897 collection of Turner's poems labeling the works an amusing series of "stories about bad children." What follows is "Poisonous Fruit," which warns inquisitive children not to eat unfamiliar foods. Akin to The Daisy, the admonitory tale ends with death. 

As Tommy and his sister Jane 
Were walking down a shady lane, 
They saw some berries, bright and red, 
That hung around and overhead. 
And soon the bough they bended down, 
To make the scarlet fruit their own; 
And part they ate, and part in play 
They threw about and flung away. 
But long they had not been at home 
Before poor Jane and little Tom 
Were taken, sick and ill, to bed 
And since, I've heard, they both are dead. 
Alas! had Tommy understood 
That fruit in lanes is seldom good, 
He might have walked with little Jane 
Again along the shady lane. 

Works Referenced 

Hahn, Daniel. The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature. 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015. 

Turner, Elizabeth. "Poisonous Fruit." Mrs. Turner's Cautionary Stories. London: Grant Richard, 1897. 109-110.

Haunted Bust

$7 - $10 (based on 2015 prices)

Makes one bust  

I have always admired those creepy busts that haunt the drafty hallways of old houses. For my version, I wanted to add a more sinister touch. So, I gave the prop the illusion of darkness pouring from its eyes. The project is rather easy and quick, especially if you find your bust at the second-hand store. You can use either a larger piece or a series of smaller statues to create a coven of ghostly figures.

• One twelve-inch ceramic bust
• One 8 oz. bottle of wood glue*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat black*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat brown*
• One 2 oz. bottle of acrylic paint in flat white*

1. On a newspaper-lined surface, paint the bust black. Although I only used one coat, you may want more depending on your desired coverage. Keep in mind, though, that this is the base coat for the crackle paint and much of it will be covered up by the second layer. While I chose black, you can use a different color to tailor the prop for your specific needs.

2. Once the paint has dried, use a thick brush to apply a smattering of wood glue to the prop. Try not to over think your application (a random pattern produces the best results).

3. Let the glue sit for a minute to become tacky and then cover the bust with the white paint. Here, too, I only used one coat; however, you may want more. As the glue and paint dry, they will form cracks, making the base coat visible.

4. Once the glue and paint have fully dried, brush a light coat of brown paint onto the bust to simulate dirt. During this process, try to focus on areas where dust and grime would normally accumulate: in the curls of the hair, along the creases of the clothing, and inside the ears and mouth.

5. Use the black paint to darken the eyes and create a dripping effect. You want the final version to look like blackened evil is pouring from the bust’s eyes. Try to simulate running mascara, exaggerating the streams and bringing them down toward the jaw line.

*You will not use the entire bottle’s content for this project.