Image Courtesy El Museo Cultural
Richard Balthazar embraces the Aztec codices for his digitally rendered coloring book, Ye Gods! Icons of Azted Deities.
Over lunch at Counter Culture Café, Richard Balthazar explains that his new coloring book, Ye Gods!: Icons of Aztec Deities, was years in the making. According to the trim, twinkly-eyed 70-something, "When I started this thing back in 2014, nobody was doing coloring books." Now, of course, they're available at most grocery market check-out counters, but still—Ye Gods! offers an educational slant, a comparatively unique subject matter and, most winningly, is the result of years of scholarship and passion.
The book's 14 icons, which Balthazar drew using a computer graphics program, are inspired by the Aztec codices. Today, we know of only 15 codices that survived a mass book-burning campaign on behalf of 16th-century Catholic priests. Now housed in public and private collections around the world, they contain scenes of magic and pathos, but also careful geometric patterns and precisely ordered calendars.
The Aztecs are popularly known for human sacrifice, and though some pages of the codices contain scenes of gruesome violence, they mostly portray fantastical kingdoms bursting with color, jaguar-headed men and trees sprouting from human heads. Balthazar's careful renderings of coiled serpents, warrior goddesses and other fascinating creatures and characters are all based on images he's studied from original codices.
For the exhibit, which opens Friday at El Museo Cultural in the Railyard, all 14 icons are displayed on 3-by-4-foot vinyl banners, and Balthazar presents free lectures on Aztec themes every Friday
(6 pm) and Sunday (2 pm) throughout the duration of the show. Balthazar says the images from Ye Gods! are downloadable and free for the taking at richardbalthazar.com.
Speaking of books, Balthazar is an open one, and on his personal website, he writes about his life with outrageous humor and honesty. He grew up in rural Arkansas, the son of a truck stop owner (you can read more about this period in his autobiographical novella, Bat in a Whirlwind). He was bright, and attended Tulane University on a full scholarship. Soon after arriving in New Orleans in 1961, Balthazar came out during what he calls "the stone age of gay liberation." Nevertheless, he ended up married with kids by his mid-20s. Though the union didn't last, he's still close with his ex-wife, kids and grandchildren, some of whom live here in town. By the time Balthazar settled in Santa Fe in the 1980s, he had developed a deep fascination with Native cultures, and, drawing on his lifelong love of writing, opened Five Flower Press, publishing books on Midwestern Indian burial mounds and on the Aztec codices.
I ask Balthazar if people are surprised by his passion for Aztec culture. "The first thing they asked me at El Museo Cultural," he says, "was. 'How does this fit into your story?' I told them, 'The thing is, I have many stories.'"
He means that somewhat literally. On his website, Balthazar divides his life into eight unique episodes, including "Sexy Young Faerie," "Reluctant Father" and "Grandfatherly Gay Character." During this last iteration, Balthazar was a fixture of the Santa Fe Farmers Market, where he was known as "The Old Plant Guy" or "The Iris Man." Every Saturday, he sold used or otherwise unwanted plants during a 15-year period he calls "the happiest professional time of my life." When Balthazar retired in 2013, he focused on art and writing—and dancing. A lover of Latin and disco music, on his blog, Balthazar bemoans the loss of Santa Fe's erstwhile gay night club, the Blue Rooster. When it shuttered, he wrote, "I had no choice but to dance among the straight young things at the Skylight to considerably less danceable music."
At the most basic level, Balthazar wants to share his love of all things Aztec with others. "For me, this is an educational exercise," he explains. "It's a means of getting people as excited as I am about an amazing culture." When I mention how cool it is that Currents New Media Festival, Santa Fe's ever-growing annual exhibition, will be up at El Museo while his show is there, he agrees. "To have Currents showing at the same time, in the same building, is a huge blessing," he says, "and I think my show is a good fit, actually, since I used technology to make the drawings."
Balthazar would like to continue the project with a follow-up coloring book. "With my good genes, a ninth persona may lurk in my future; possibly even a 10th, as I've never been a cat person," he quips. I could have stayed and talked with Balthazar for hours, but he zipped off on his bicycle to meet his grandson after school.
Richard Balthazar: Ye Gods! Icons of Aztec Deities Opening Reception:
El Museo Cultural de Santa Fe,
555 Camino de La Familia,
992-0591
