Local Art, of the snooty variety

I bought the most expensive souvenir I have ever purchased for myself today.

I bought art.

This art was meant to be mine. I saw this painting on the wall in the Maya MacLean Casa in San Miguel seven months ago when I was here. I contemplated buying it. I even had a dream about it. I went back to see it again, but the price tag was speaking too loudly to me at that point.

To an art connoisseur – which I am not – this painting might be unimpressive. I believe it’s an oil painting, thickly coated with brilliant reds, yellows and oranges. It’s maybe about 5x5ft. big. It’s by a Bolivian artist who was trained in the US named Keiko Gonzales.

But when I found out I was coming back to Bolivia, I thought about this shop and I thought, if that painting is still there, I should buy it.

And there it was...

I didn’t have to buy it. I certainly would have survived without it. It was an investment that will cut back my food budget for the next few months (which is okay. I need to lose some weight anyway!).

But I have a big blank white wall in my apartment that has been screaming for a piece of art to be hung for many, many months, and it will make my little home feel a little more complete. And it will remind me of a place I have visited. And no one will have the same piece of art in their house, anywhere. All those reasons are good enough for me.

Now the big question is, how am I going to get it home...