About the Artist
Marcial Rodriguez learned the art of Straw Appliqué at the age of five, while seated around a dining-room table with his grandparents, Eliseo and Paula Rodriguez. At that age, Eliseo and Paula gave Marcial small cardboard crosses for practice, in lieu of traditional wooden ones. With small hands, Marcial glued straw that was scissor-cut by “Grandma Polé”, so he wouldn’t cut himself. At the age of eight he began showing his work at various annual events, including the Annual Spanish Market in Santa Fe. He has won numerous awards throughout the years and has been featured in many publications, including the Santa Fean, New Mexico magazine, and El Palacio.
A Family Tradition
El Sexto Píntor, Eliseo Rodriguez–a lifetime painter and artist–is credited for reviving the art of Straw Appliqué in New Mexico through the Federal Art Projects’ Works Progress Administration. The story goes that Eliseo was eager to learn many different art mediums, including carpentry and tinwork, and when the opportunity came along to develop the “lost art” of straw appliqué, he was the only one amongst his peers who was interested. Along with his wife Paula (who quickly became a master herself), they learned together and passed this unique art form to four generations of Rodriguez’s and countless others who to this day practice this intricate art form.
History of Straw Appliqué
Straw appliqué–an art form practiced around the world–is believed to have originated as an art form practiced by peasants who desired marquetry, a form of decorating wooden items, typically with other wood, ivory or gold. Because of it’s visual similarity to marquetry, or inlay, straw appliqué soon was coined with the term “poor man’s gold”. Passed from the Moors to the Spanish as early as 700AD, and then practiced as a religious art form, it was brought to the New World and into what is present day New Mexico, where it flourished as an art form in the 1700’s and 1800’s, practiced by Spanish and Natives alike. At the end of the 1800’s, however, it was considered a lost art form.
The Art of Turning Straw Into Gold
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