Review: Garza, C. L. (2014). Magic windows: Ventanas, mágicas/cut-paper art and stories.

Garza, C. L. (2014). Magic windows: Ventanas, mágicas/cut-paper art and stories. New York: Childrens Book Press, an imprint of Lee & Low Books.

In the bilingual Magic Windows (Ventanas mágicas), Carmen Lomas Garza introduces her artwork with an explanation of papel picado, or cut-paper art, which she describes as having a “long history in Mexico.”  The artist refers to her work as “magic windows...into another world.” The beautiful book is really a lesson in Hispanic culture, as her art, cut with a craft knife, depicts images from her own personal family life and history.  Each piece is reproduced, along with both its title and a narrative description of its background and design, in English and in Spanish.

Some of her earlier pieces are more simple, while they progressively become extremely detailed and complex.  Some of the paper artwork depicts daily family life, while other is more symbolic in its representation: one interesting piece, Palabras en Flor (Flower Words) is an illustration of a  woman with a vining dahlia plant “flowing” from her mouth, which the artist/author describes as being inspired by the idea of “beautiful speech” and its importance in Mexico.  She goes on to explain that her artwork helped her to find her own “voice,” or “flowery speech.”

In the end the book shows one of her pieces, Ofrenda para Antonio Lomas (Offering for Antonio Lomas, depicting her grandfather), as it appears installed in the Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum in Chicago.  For further reading and viewing, try the artist’s Cuadros de Familia (Family Pictures), 2005; or, for more of an indepth look at this medium and how to use it, read Making Magic Windows: Creating Cut-Paper Art With Carmen Lomas Garza, 1999.