Visiting artists Alejandra Mares, Juan Jose Huerta and Xavier Moreno to have exhibit at Catapult Creative House

Now showing at the Catapult Creative House in Cape Girardeau is the artwork of Alejandra Mares, Juan Jose Huerta and Xavier Moreno.

It's fresh off the press.

The trio also will be there.

They're fresh off a plane from Le--n, Mexico.

Mares and Moreno, husband and wife, arrived a week ago, while Huerta arrived earlier this week for a month stay and a series of events that will celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month. The three artists will be unveiling their exhibit of about 40 prints they have produced over the last year, titled "Convergentes," at a First Friday event from 5 to 9 p.m. today at Catapult, 612 Broadway in Cape Girardeau.

Alejandra Mares looks over art selections before hanging artwork for an upcoming show at Catapult Creative House in Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

It will be the first of a series of events they will be participating in during their stay, including a live-printing collaboration with Southeast Missouri State University printmaking professor Hannah Sanders on the River Campus during the solar eclipse Aug. 21. It's all part of an exchange of ideas, techniques and culture during their stay.

"We're excited to be here," Mares said. "The eclipse is a very interesting thing, because the last time in Mexico was '92, I think. And to learn from the students here. I'm very curious how they work, their techniques."

It's coincidental the visit aligns with the much-anticipated eclipse. It revolves more around the heritage month, which will include Latin music performances Aug. 29 and Sept. 20 and a dance performance Sept. 21.

The trio also will present a lecture Aug. 31 at The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri, 16 N. Spanish St. in Cape Girardeau, and will talk about their exhibition at a second First Friday event and workshop in September.

Joni Hand, assistant professor of art history at Southeast, formed a friendship with Mares and Moreno while living in New York and has fostered it since moving to Cape Girardeau.

Alejandra Mares, left, Joni Hand and Xavier Moreno pose for a photo before hanging artwork for an upcoming show at Catapult Creative House in Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

"Lucky for me, I'm co-gallery director for Catapult, so I had the means to get the space and book their time here," Hand said. "The planets were aligning."

Their print artwork is created by etching images into linoleum with an assortment of tools, applying ink to the surface and then pressing it onto paper made of cotton, which absorbs the colors.

The images themselves are reflections of the life and artistry of Le--n, which is renowned for the art of shoemaking. The carving technique used in print-making is similar to that used in working the leather.

Moreno was wearing a sample of one of his city's primary exports, with a colorful, crafted pair of shoes that looked as though they could be part of the exhibit. One of his works features a bearded man with glasses peering down at his hands, all in black and white. Red ink with textured lines separates the head and hands and fills out the rest of the canvas, creating a lifeblood feel.

"He is a shoemaker," Moreno said. "I just wanted to make something very different of the shoemaking, because they work with a lot of materials and shapes."

Alejandra Mares, left, and her husband, Xavier Moreno, pose for a photo before hanging artwork for an upcoming show at Catapult Creative House in Cape Girardeau.Laura Simon

Mares' work also features a disjointed image, with the upper half a beige-toned poncho-style garment and the bottom half a black-and-white-toned portrait of two legs in shoes.

Much of Mares' work includes a signature ventricle heart, sometimes large, red and the primary focus and other times small, black and secondary.

"The heart represents me in every piece," said Mares, who said her work is from her experience in Le--n, a city with a population around 1.5 million people in central Mexico in the state of Guanajuato.

While Mares' and Moreno's work is more figurative, Huerta gravitates toward the abstract and generally incorporates more colors.

"He likes to do a lot of textures," Moreno said. "He likes to intersect some geographical planes."

All three artists work in other media.

"This is a re-encounter with this technique," Moreno said. "Our specialty is painting, but right now, we are very involved with the printmaking."

Numerous or single prints can be made through the technique, with the quantity often dependent on the integrity of the plate, which is compromised with usage but sometimes intentionally limited by the artist.

Mares and Moreno said the printing process is the most challenging, noting paper positioning and paper moisturizing as critical, with the latter leading to ink bleeding if not done correctly.

Moreno said he formerly did page design, then graphic work for a newspaper before becoming the coordinator of a design team in Mexico for Infographic World, an agency out of New York. It was with Infographic World he worked with and became friends with Hand's husband, Kevin.

The Hands moved to Cape Girardeau five years ago, and Mares and Moreno visited in December 2015. The Hands have visited them in Le--n.

"We went to Mexico at the beginning of the year, and we're all artists, and we all started to think it'd be nice to have a collaboration somehow between the cities of Le--n and Cape Girardeau -- because of the political environment with Mexico and all this, it would be interesting to have a place where we could get together and share ideas," Hand said.

Moreno said the artistry is a two-way street.

"It's totally an exchange," Moreno said. "We want to learn from Cape Girardeau people, from Cape Girardeau students, from Cape Girardeau teachers, and whatever we can teach to all of them ... to just plant a seed here in Cape Girardeau, just to make that everyone converges in one point. That's our goal, having this exhibition and also going into the streets and talk to the people about what is printmaking. Why do we do this and what's our goal."

jbreer@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3629

Pertinent address:

612 Broadway, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

16 N. Spanish St., Cape Girardeau, Mo.