ART

Costa Rica Art

I loved seeing art around me created for everyday outdoor pleasures.

Street art I saw my last night in San Jose, Costa Rica. 

At sundown, I walked around Central Avenue's (Avenida Central) Plaza de la Cultura.
It was a little scary walking back in the dark to the hotel
on the narrow busy street lined with fruit vendors.
Taxi drivers confirmed my walking directions with my map.

The National theatre is in the bird background.
I loved finding the scultpures in the main street courtyard.- Joy

Above, see the tiny central photo. Giant woman is twice my height with vision hole.

A giant "clown" or "masquerades" are used for Patron Saint cultural festivals.

Children run behind a "cimarrona" / raucous band.

"La Giganta" (Giant Woman) is a most common figure of the payaso / clown in the folkloric masquerade tradition. She represents the wife of the great land owner, the matriarch who exercises power over the townspeople. The clown is thus always tall with a woman's face.

"Vivan siempre el trabajo y la paz."
May Work and Peace Live Forever.
Long Live Peace and Work.
The National Anthem

Costa Rica CRAFTS include:

pottery, balsa wood masks, ox carts and embroidery. - Joy

embroidery by Hoshancia Rodriquez Urbina (hotel shop keeper)

MOSAICS

So much fun to sit on long or short benches created as colorful artistic mosaics.

UR. The ceilings looked as nature, as did the artistic walkway fences.

UR. Vines crept up to the ceiling.

UR. Notice the phone booth. 

These scenes are in Tortuguero at the river where I boarded boats. No cars here.

MURALS

UL > Whales by Hiller in front of a Guanacaste grocery.

UR > "El Nino y La Nube", mural on a tall San Jose building.

The Child and The Cloud.

LL > Mural near a Tortuguero school house.

"Para Que En Un Futuro No Veanmos Solo Siluetas"

In the future we see not only silhouettes.

LR > Mural seen from shuttle on way to Costa Rica airport heading home.

It felt great to enter some hotel rooms 

and see what the chamber maids had created with towels and toilet paper.

The bow of toilet paper tied across the toilet was a favorite.

The towel on the floor going from toilet to shower was a delight.

Loved large plants in the bathroom that were moist with dew in the morning from overhead screens.

Embroidered sham cases on beds were a pleasure.

Original paintings of nature (heliconias or cows) were everywhere.

I shot 'rolls' of film in bathrooms the size of my bedroom, and in rustic cabins.

Juan Santamaria (SJO) Airport Art, San Jose, Costa Rica

I LOVE IT.

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Photos and collages by Joy Krauthammer  ©

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