Cecilio Sanchez is a contemporary Oaxacan artist from the studio of Rufino Tamayo.
As can be seen in this series of works titled “Cecilia’s Dreams” Cecilio worked almost exclusively on amate paper.
Amate Paper
The medium is fitting for Cecilio Sanchez’s work as Cecilio uses it to create these mystical, surreal backgrounds.
The paper is made with crazy patterns, sometimes resembling skies etc.
Cecilio would find naturally occurring images in the paper and almost enhance them, like letting the paper create the image for him - similar to looking at the clouds and pulling faces from them.
The Subconscious and the Dream World
Cecilio was very much into the subconscious and the dream world, which really lent itself to this medium. He used the amate paper as if it was like the subconscious mind and the images he put on top of it were “conscious” images… but sometimes that paper, or images inside of it, would turn into a conscious form.
It is that connection between the dream world and the waking world that is so dominant in Cecilio’s works.
Cecelia's Dreams
These particular works, from the series “Cecilia’s Dreams” demonstrate this style of painting. They were created after Cecilio’s wife, Cecilia had a series of very vivid and profound dreams over a series of nights. Cecilia told them to her husband, and he began to illustrate and paint them.
Next Cecilia wrote the dreams down on a sheet of paper. I asked Cecilio to write her words down so Cecilia's transcriptions of the dreams would be with his paintings. He did this and wrote them down on this beautiful white, amate paper.
He would start each transcription with that little symbolic inscription.
Each inscription related in some way to the dream it was describing.
Cecilia's Dream
And then there’s the etching Cecilia’s Dream that we have in the gallery. The work is a combination of all of Cecilia’s different dreams. It has images from all of the different dreams incorporated into it.
So that’s where the dreams came from. I think theres probably nine different dreams in total.
It is a truly terrific work.
All in all they’re really some of Cecilio’s best works.
