I had not planned on doing yet another post about the masks of Jesús Rodríguez Muñoz. However, as I looked over the photos I had taken of the masks in the collection of Barney Burns and Mahina Drees, I realized that I had provided an orientation to this artist, but so much that was brilliant remained to be shared. Here are a few more of his masks that are too good to let pass! Or at least these are masks that were probably carved by Jesús, but if not by him then they were carved by other members of the Rodríguez family. It is so ironic that although Barney and Mahina Burns obtained most of their masks from the wives of these carvers, the masks were often mislabeled, frequently said to be by one brother when they appear to be by another, or attributed to someone else entirely. Tom Kolaz and I would never have had the courage to challenge such insider information, were we not so familiar with some of these carvers that we could easily see the extent of the mislabeling, and this emboldened us to rename as the evidence permitted. However, as I will continue to demonstrate over the next few weeks, the absence of reliable insider information forced us to make arbitrary assumptions, so I am offering these tentative re-attributions in a spirit of humility. The bottom line is this—I am going to show you masks that are so wonderful that the respective carvers deserve to be recognized.

This first mask was labeled as the work of Jesús, and I agree, because it has the sort of forehead cross that Jesús often used on those occasions when he put a cross on one of his to be danced masks, and it has his typical conical shape. Barney and Mahina obtained this mask in 2003 after it had been used for about five years (B/M 127).

I admire the wild expression on this mask. I also like the unusual two-layered rim design—a line of small triangles within another line of much larger ones. The long curving triangles under the eyes imitate those of Preciliano Rodríguez Cupis, the father of Jesús.

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This series of posts about Yoeme (Yaqui) Pascola masks began on July 4, 2016.

In this third post about the Pascola masks of Jesús Rodríguez Muñoz, I will show a few more of his danced masks, to expose you to some of his other design features and variations. The first of these masks, which was attributed to Jesús by his relatives, has a canine face that seems almost Cubist (and conical) in it’s shape and style. It was collected by Barney Burns and Mahina Drees in 2006 (B/M 100). As one finds frequently for this carver’s danced masks, there is no forehead cross.

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This series of posts about Yoeme (Yaqui) Pascola masks began on July 4, 2016. Today I will continue last week’s discussion about the masks of Jesús Rodríguez Muñoz.

I will start off with an undanced and apparently made for sale mask with a human  face that I found on EBay™. The major added embellishments were plastic jewels. Inlaid mirror elements also enhance this mask, but such inlay work does not represent a new novelty addition, as mother of pearl inlays were traditionally used on documented masks from the early twentieth century, and these gave way to shapes cut from glass mirrors and then from plastic CDs in recent decades. Last week you saw a danced clown with inlaid plastic jewels that created the appearance of tears. To add to the confusion, the white triangles under the eyes on a Pascola mask are also referred to as tears.

This is a rather nice mask, with many traditional elements.

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This series of posts about Yoeme (Yaqui) Pascola masks began on July 4, 2016.

You were introduced to the masks of Jesús Rodríguez Muñoz in my introductory post about Barney Burns and Mahina Drees. There you saw his mask of a bat with prominent fangs. Today I will begin to compare made for sale masks that were carved by Jesús with some danced examples. Today’s made for sale masks  portray beings from the desert world, beings that are not portrayed by traditional masks, and then we will examine a danced mask with some similar features. I will begin with what appears to be a mask of a butterfly. You saw it here first!

One hint that this is a butterfly is that the forehead cross has the form of a flower. But my eyes are on the proboscis tongue. This carver often neglects to provide a cross on his danced masks, while supplying his made for sale masks with forehead crosses that are unusual. In this respect he appears to cater to these two different markets, but otherwise not so much.

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Today I will compare made for sale and danced human faced masks by a Yaqui carver, Rodrigo Rodríguez Muñoz, beginning with one that I showed two weeks ago. Later I will end with a goat faced mask by Rodrigo.

I purchased this mask in June, 1999 directly from Barney Burns and Mahina Drees. They had obtained it one year earlier from the carver. There is much about this mask that is typical of Rodrigo’s style, whether he was carving for traditional use or for sale to outsiders. For example there is the flat upper surface, the cross painted there, the rim design, the eyes, and the triangles under the eyes. What is missing from this mask, compared to the danced canine masks in last week’s post and the danced human faced and goat faced masks that follow is the dynamic vigor found in the carving of those masks, as well as the simplicity of ornamentation.

In other words, these made for sale masks are carefully carved, they have attractive decoration that they share with Rodrigo’s dance masks, but they lack the exaggerated mass or power of those intended for dancing. They almost seem two dimensional, compared to the danced masks.

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Last week I introduced two Indian traders, Barney Burns and Mahina Drees. Today I continue their story.

Barney Tillman Burns died on August 14, 2014. On October 2, 2015 a mutual friend told me that Mahina Drees Burns was looking for someone to help her to organize and photograph the collection of masks that she and Barney had assembled over a period of decades. Of course I indicated my strong interest. On March 10, 2016 I flew from Pennsylvania to Tucson at Mahina’s invitation to photograph the masks.  I was there for nearly two weeks. A wonderful friend, Wade Sherbrooke, loaned Mahina and me his garage to use as a studio. As it turned out, there were at least 768 masks (plus a few more that Mahina discovered after I had returned to Pennsylvania); of those, 409 were Yaqui. Here is a photo of my garage studio.

The next photo is the view from Wade’s back yard of the land outside of the garage. This is a mountain adjacent to Saguaro National Park West.

Going into this project, I really didn’t know what to expect. Mahina and Barney had actively collected danced masks, put them away in boxes, and moved on to their next tasks. Would the masks prove to be old or recent? Would I encounter carvers who were otherwise unknown to me? Would there be masks by identified carvers that allowed me to identify anonymous masks in my own collection? And vice versa? In fact, most of the masks dated to the last 30 years or so, I discovered some carvers who were new to me, and I did make many connections between anonymous  masks and others that were well documented.

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Today I want to introduce you to Barney T. Burns and Mahina Drees Burns, an interesting and important couple on several counts. I am uncertain how to begin, so I will simply plunge into the middle of the story and then expand from there.

Barney and Mahina collected and distributed masks made by Mexican Indians, writing in pencil on the back of each mask the initials of the carver and the month and year of collection. In a sea of undocumented masks, those that passed through their hands are a welcome gift! In recent posts you have already seen masks by Antonio Bacasewa that had this documentation. Today my purpose is to visually transport you back to Tucson in the 1990s, when an assortment of interesting made for sale masks was available as a consequence of these traders’ efforts. Here is one of those masks, which I purchased directly from Barney Burns and Mahina Drees in June, 1999. I will revisit this one in greater detail in two weeks.

The carver of this mask, Rodrigo Rodríguez Muñoz, provided traditional style masks to Yaqui Pascola dancers in his community and his masks were popular there. In response to the opportunity to sell to American tourists and collectors, he maintained much of his usual style, but experimented with brighter paint, enhanced decorative elements, and occasional novel designs. Also, although his made for sale masks had an appropriate form, Rodrigo did not carve them to the standard of masks that he made for dancing. This is an excellent example of his made for sale carvings—a handsome mask that combines tradition and glitz in an attractive blend.

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This series of posts about Yoeme (Yaqui) Pascola masks began on July 4, 2016.

In this final post about the masks of Antonio Bacasewa of Vicam, in the Mexican state of Sonora, I will show some of his charming made for sale or use masks of apes and pigs. I find him so clever and inventive. I will begin with a mask that might represent a pig or some other animal, to set the stage for the brilliant and undeniable pig mask that follows. This mask was collected by Tom Kolaz in the early 1980s from a dancer in Barrio Libre, Tucson.

Here is a pig-like critter, although one might argue that it could represent a dog.

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This series of posts about Yoeme (Yaqui) Pascola masks began on July 4, 2016.

In this post and the next I will continue to present Yoeme Pascola masks by Antonio Bacasewa. Today we will look at canine Pascola masks, old and new, along with an unusual made for sale mask with the face of a bull. I will start with a made for sale dog Pascola mask that was probably collected from a dancer at Barrio Libre (Tucson) in the 1980s.

This is an excellent mask, but the design detail that really stands out is the graceful extended tongue.

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This is the fifth in a series of posts about Yoeme (Yaqui) Pascola masks that began on July 4, 2016.

Today I want to contrast three of Antonio Bacasewa’s goat faced Pascola masks that I bought from Tucson merchants with two more Goat Pascola masks that are old and worn. Here is one that was mildly danced, to get us started.

On his goat masks, Antonio was prone to emphasize flat spots on the nasal ridge and muzzle. We will see this over and over again on today’s masks.

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