Welcome to the "Mucho Fiesta" Cow Blog.

Artist: Alex Knuckles
Contact: alex.knuckles@gmail.com

This cow represents an eclectic fusion of different arts & crafts found around Mexico. The sun is a common motif found in many Mexican crafts such as ceramics, household tiles, and woven handbags.... it’s a pretty design.

STEP 1

I received some guidelines from my sponsor Jay, a designer from Frenkel and Arc Int., he gathered pictures of suns found specifically in Mexican ceramics, cut them up and fussed them as a collage using Photoshop, of course this first design was just an orientation, creative input was allowed.







STEP 2.
A little Goggle image research of Mexican Arts and Crafts, this is what I found.

These are examples of Huichol Weavings, I've always been intrigued by the meticulous work they do.


STEP 3
Coming up with some of my own designs.















These sun designs served only as guidelines, some were omitted.


STEP 4
I painted a small (25x25cm) Gouche painting, again, further guidence of what the suns on the cow would look like.


I did this little doodle just to give me an idea on how much time it would take me to paint one sun. What I didn't think of is that I work faster with Gauche than acrylics...the cow had to be painted in acrylics.








Step 5
After comming up with all these ideas it was about time to come up with a final design.




Although I tried to keep the actual cow as close as possible to this design, the final product didn't completely portray this model.






STEP 6

After picking up the cow at the Denver warehouse, it was about time to start painting...

The cow became an important figure of the household (still not completely finished in the pics. bellow).

...ahhh...the final product, it took me a month an a half to work on this, a little distracted by the World Cup and other stuff, but it was worth it. Oh...the title "Moocho Fiesta" was named by the organizers, I wanted to call it -in a very inspirational sense-"The Mexican Cow"...Bam!











Special Thanks:

-Julian: Dad you are a better artist than I ever was, politics and economics is for “squares” and deep down we both know that, this would’ve not come out of me if it weren’t for you, I thank you.
-Ma: con mucho amor, algún día descubrirs el internet, pero bueno hasta ese dia, aqui estoy.
-Sara: for the biggest animal lover, with much love, here is one I created, I hope you like it, but it will never meet the beauty of our little pug friends.
-Philip: Pedorro, ya ves, creo que soy mas bueno que tu en algo. Saludos y mucha suerte con tu Doctorado. But I must say, cloning stem-cells is cool, but the geek talk scares away the girls, learn from your artists funky brother…and respect.
-Minton Family (all of them): Derek, I sat critically in your studio since childehood and learned more things about life than there is to art; you have brought the best of artists to light, but no one will ever match you. Much love to you, and all of you’re family….my family.
-#1: I think you pushed inspiration in me more than any piece of art could express.
Other peeps: Daniel/Rene, Santi-Ana-Lupe-Jaime, The Whisky Club, Elias y toda tu familia, Putrick/Sara, Laury/Jack/Gina, Adrian/Adriana, Ingrid, Maru, Piru/Ley-Hoku-Pedro, Ken-Ian-Jenny-Augusta/and family, Nick-Hannah, Hector, Mari, Mauricio, Cristina, Jenny/Kim/J-Paul, Brendan, Josh, Jamie, Mara, Beast, amparito y las marybols. la banda de museologia, la banda de mi hermano, la banda de tecoyuca...