Calixto Sibaja has a long history in pictorial art — and now he’s going back to his beginnings by working with pre-Columbian pigments, a skill he learned in his homeland of Oaxaca, Mexico.

Sibaja first learned about organic pigments as a child, using pieces of coal that his grandmother would give him, bits of brick or other natural elements.

He needed all of them, too, because the everyday scenes in his home village of San Pedro Tapanatepec provided a trove of inspiration for his artwork.

Sibaja recalled his beginnings as an artist during a recent stop at the Mexican Cultural Institute located on Olvera Street the El Pueblo Historical Monument in Downtown Los Angeles. El Pueblo is the historic birthplace of Los Angeles, and the cultural institute recently hosted an exhibit of Sibaja’s work.

A Calixto Sibaja painting of two peasants selling gourds.

“I could draw women with their iguana baskets, women who would move their traditional embroidered blouses or skirts in time to the breeze,” Sibaja said. “I was fascinated seeing their colors. In those days, I gave expression to everyday life without artistic technique.”

Calixto said that he drew significant influence by the customs of his Zapotec grandparents, who lived a simple, modest life.

“My concept of art was natural,” Sibaja said. “I didn’t have materials, and somehow I would draw on the leaf of a tree, in the sand on the river bank, or on a blackened pot of my grandmother’s.”

What began as play soon became a way of life. At the age of nine, Sibaja was invited to participate in a municipal for San Pedro Tapanatepec. It was the first time he touched oil pigments.

Sibaja’s artistic talents soon led him to Mexico City to study painting and sculpture at the Pedro de Alba School. From there he came to the U.S., a place he viewed as an ideal location to immerse himself in painting, including work as an art teacher. He currently lives in Los Angeles city and teaches at the Mexican Cultural Institute on Olvera Street.

“I have had the satisfaction of teaching painting for free to children with Down’s syndrome, autism and other disabilities, as well as to children and adolescents who are children of Oaxacan immigrants living in Los Angeles.”

An exhibit visitor studying a Sibaja painting depicting a traditional peasant harvesting maize.

Sibaja has also spent time teaching immigrants from Chiapas, who have also taught him about various pigments, fabrics and brushes from their home state in southern Mexico.

Sibaja has picked up plenty of recognition along with way, including top honors in the Contemporary Hispanic category at the International Art Festival in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 2007. He says the recognition in Santa Fe — a significant center of U.S. art world — opened doors to a number of prestigious galleries.

Sibaja is currently a member of a group of artists that promote protection of the environment through their works. The environmental theme carries through in workshops he conducts on natural pigments, also known as organic pigments. The workshops serve as a forum for Sibaja to share knowledge on how to use the pigments from fruits, roots, flowers, and other pieces of nature. He can get unique browns from coffee, while beets produce magenta, and mangoes are good for shades of yellow. His knowledge of the methods of his pre-Columbian allow him to also extract pigments more exotic sources, including annatto, the scarlet sow bug, and snails, among others.

The natural look extends to many of the resins and fabrics Sibaja uses. He can waterproof a canvas with beeswax and nopal cactus slime, for example.

“My idea for using natural pigments is because the pigment market is saturated with chemical products that are toxic for one’s health, like oils, some of which contain lead, and acrylics, some of which contain cadmium,” Sibaja says. “It is important to make changes in order to protect our planet and motivate children and teens to use products that won’t harm the world.”

It’s an artistic journey — and Sibaja is heading home.

“I began using them as a child, but that knowledge was dormant and the time came to wake up,” he says.

Mireya Olivera is editor of Impulso.

Photos from Impulso

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