“Mexicanidad”

By Caroline Stauffer

El Sabor

Federico Correa enjoyed his time in Norfolk. His successful stay included selling 27 paintings on the opening night of his show at London Square Gallery, the Colley Avenue venue hosting "Mexicanidad." Yet on his way to the airport last Saturday afternoon, the artist was frankly ready to go home. "I miss Mexico," Correa said simply. Though he lived in Norfolk from 1983 until 2003 and holds a Bachelor's of Fine Arts from Old Dominion University, Correa found the city too busy this time around--too many cars.

Correa credits his move to San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico five years ago with changing his painting. "I love it there," he said simply. "I especially love painting there." Correa paints in the quiet of the Mexican night, between 11 p.m. and 3 a.m., in the company of the nickel-size stars

above his terrace.

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Correa's painting method is unique, and his art is not preconceived. Correa describes his

technique in the show's catalogue: "When I look at the canvas, I can see the work is already in

there and my job is to bring it out."

"To have someone be able to do work in their subconscious is rare," gallery owner Scott London

said. "To have someone be able to do it image after image is extremely rare."

Correa grew up in Soledad, a farming community in California's Salinas valley. "Where I lived--it

could have been Mexico," he said. "We had tiendas, we had chorizo. We did not learn how to

speak English until we started school."

Though he loves living in Mexico, Correa's paintings reveal a complex relationship with the

country and culture. For example, the working men in Correa's "The Plight of the Mexican Bride"

series are portrayed as half man, half beast--a perspective that defines marriage as an

economically necessary arrangement, negligent of the bride's desires.

Correa's work is in fact ripe with symbols, though London said Correa does not like to be typecast

as a symbolist painter. A fence in his painting represents not a geographical border, but instead

Correa's belief that people are trapped in their own  conditions.

Correa's Catholic upbringing is evident in his use of established Catholic symbolism. The colors

blue and white reference the Virgin and purity in the Mexican bride series. Correa's paintings

frequently feature animal symbols. Dogs, for example, symbolize St. Roche, protector of plague

victims in the Catholic tradition.

There are also images that are uniquely Mexican. Skeletons represent the Día de los Muertos.

The painting "Singing Praises of Llorona," portrays a figure from Mexican folklore: the ghost of a

frightening woman who haunts the Rio Grande seeking her children.

Mexican Poet Octavia Paz has influenced Correa's work. One piece referencing Paz's 1950

poem "The Labyrnth of Solitude," considered to be a quintessential study of Mexican identity,

seems especially appropriate in "Mexicanidad."

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Federico Correa

Federico Correa

Federico Correa