Doñas con donas
Some amazing Mexicana photomontage cards by local artist, Bill Blair, have arrived at Plenty. Bill’s juxtaposition of imagery plays on themes of nostalgia and ideas of identity. In Doñas con donas (Dames With Donuts, pictured above) note the use of Tim Horton’s donuts as sombreros. Click here to view more of Bill’s work.
Victoria artist Bill Blair has been creating photomontage images since the early 1980s, when his black-and-white tall-tale imagery of giant chopsticks in Chinatown, flying saucers over the Inner Harbor, and assorted tall-tale salmon puns appeared in postcard form.
Much of his imagery fluctuates between themes of Canadiana and Mexicana - both real and imaginary. Both play off the idea of early-20th-century romantic travel ideals.
A series of notecards from his Mexicana hand-tinted photomontages have been published in Mexico by Gusano de Luz. These images incorporate human subjects from the artist’s extensive collection of early-20th-century Mexican real-photo postcards, mixing his own background elements photographed from his travels in Mexico.
The originals are unique, one-of-a-kind silver gelatin prints hand-tinted with transparent photo oils. A number of Blair’s Mexicana originals, in the collection of chef Rick Bayless, can be viewed in the Morales Room at Frontera Grill in Chicago.