Adios, Amigos!

Hola amigos! For my last blog post on this series, I though I'd do something a little different: a show of the best Salvadoran food trucks!

I know, kind of unrelated to the whole "arts and crafts" blog... But these food trucks are also independent businesses, and almost an art form in and of themselves. You'll see what I mean.

First up, Oye Chico!

I'd totally live out of it

This Cuban (legit Cuban, from La Havana) is small, but mighty.

art

I told you. An art form.

This one's the "Super Cubano": 1/2 a baguette, smoked pork shoulder, pork rinds, caramelized onion, mozzarella. It's all doused in chipotle mayo and comes with a side of plantain chips and pickled onions.

All of their creations have similar quirky names and excellent ingredients, and are delivered from the side of their truck every day, from 11p.m (for the office crowd) to 2a.m (for me).

Above: Tostones de Plátano (plantain fritters), and Chicharrones al Mojo de Ajo (garlic mojo pork rinds). It's really cheap too (for you and I). A full meal will run you between $1 (for the tostones) and $5 (for the larges sandwiches). Score!

Now, for Argentinean:

it looks as awful as it is good. So very much so.

You know what, maybe these just don't photograph well.

This food truck is actually located right around the corner from Oye Chico's. It's ran by an Argentinean couple who came to El Salvador to find it in post-civil war mayhem, in 1995. They did other things for a while, before finally deciding to cater to the broke masses of students that frequent the area around the museum where they're located. Hence, their prices are extremely cheap, and the food is extremely good.

My favorites.

Their motto is "two can eat with a $10", and they definitely deliver on that front.

Last but not least, the Salvadoran cuisine item par excellence (which is coincidentally street food): pupusas.

Corn tortillas filled with cheese and beans and anything

They're $0.50 apiece, and they're Godsend for breakfast. Or lunch. Or dinner. You know, I think I've even had them as snacks at some point.

The best pupusas come straight from dingy pupuserías, with stern voices and strong arms.

YES

No two pupusas are the same, and no two pupuserías will have the same feel either. While not strictly food trucks, they most definitely belong to the "cheap street food" category. I've heard the same about Philly cheesesteaks-- the dirtier, the better. In this case, the cheaper the pupusa, the more you enjoy it.

A final note:

While this blog post wasn't about arts and crafts, I'd like to think I still shed some light on small Salvadoran entrepreneurs, which was the whole point of the blog from its conception. Be it through arts, crafts or food, I wanted to highlight some of the true Salvadoran spirit, which is so at odds with the media's portrayal of my country. Yes, we are small, but (much like the first food truck showcased, Oye Chico!) mighty. And hope I could transmit some of that ethos with my blog.

Adios, amigos!

COSTAZUL / Lou

In honor of the really warm Monday we're supposed to be having in a couple days (84 degrees!!!!), I thought I'd make a post about swimsuits. Because my favorite pastime during the cold, dead days of winter is looking through beachy swimwear collections and daydreaming about the beautiful days of summer. Which I think will never come back. Because it's the cold dead of winter.

But I digress. I'm not rambling here (but if you are interested in rants and rambles, do check out my Civic Issues blog).

On this post, I'm talking about swimsuits.

And of course, not only any swimsuit: I'm talking about artsy, unique, eclectic printed stuff. There are two up-and-coming swimsuit artist boutiques in El Salvador: COSTAZUL and Lou. COSTAZUL caters to men, and Lou to women; both with a markedly different style, but the same explosion of beach on both (which is why I love them).

First, COSTAZUL:

COSTAZUL

COSTAZUL is the brainchild of Neto Rodriguez (who will hopefully be featured soon), a 20-something Salvadoran artist with a passion for all things color and sea.

My boyfriend probably would never wear those shoes

     
All above: COSTAZUL

All the materials are locally sourced, and the finished pieces are hand-stitched by local artisans... Therefore contributing to the local economy and empowerment of small communities.

Lou's Bikinis are a different story, and I'm planning on lingering here a while longer.

They're made from Brazilian materials, but completely in El Salvador (again, by local craftsmen and women):

The pom-poms! The colors!

blue

lemony?

As you can see, the material the swimsuits are made of look pretty sturdy-- not naming names, but that's pretty rare in most occasions these days. Lou also makes small cute swimsuits for baby-people:

To be honest my baby probably wouldn't wear that either because my imaginary family is pretty un-fashionable

I'm just a really big fan of patterns and colors and different textures-- especially at the beach, when I feel they contrast beautifully with the scenery.

The best part of both of these boutiques is that they empower local communities and the economy, and by only producing small lots of swimsuits they manage to keep their content fresh, exclusive and sustainable. For me, that's a beautiful operation.

That's all for today! I hope you're looking forward to summer as much as I am (and decide to renew your swimsuit closet in the process)

Stay artsy!

Kei Saavedra

¡Hola!

Do you ever feel like you need an extra shot of special to get you through the week (weekend by the time you read this, actually)? You're walking down the street and everything seems grey... And you just feel bleh? Well, don't worry! I got your back with some sweet Salvadoran art-magic to perk you right up!

A special treat today (my week has been pretty rough; I need the big guns): Kei Saavedra. 

The most magical of the featured artists on this blog series, Kei Saavedra never lost her childhood affinity towards the fantastic adventures of fairytale characters. In fact, this 24-year-old managed to make a living out of her passions of drawing and storytelling by creating distinct characters (or even adapting existing ones) and playing around with them:

Supergirl!

Lavagirl reimagined.
(Am I the only one who cringes profusely when I think about the old movie Sharkboy and Lavagirl?)

In fact, one of my favorite series of hers is the Harry Potter one:

From top to bottom:



The Book of Magical Thinking

The Book of Magical Thinking Drawing Pad

More Harry Potter Merch whose name I don't know but knowing her, it's artsy and quirky and fun




Much like Andrea Tobar last week, Kei's color schemes are light and varied. However, unlike Tobar, she almost always has a definite "story" going on in the background of her images; be it with calligraphy or a story, or simply by juxtaposing her pictures with scenes, or directly incorporating the drawings into her daily life.

For example, I really enjoy this thing Saavedra does when she travels anywhere-- she takes a montaged picture of one of her drawings as a part of the landscape:

La niña en el coco

Where the Wild Things Are

Above: Cusco, Machu Pichu, the Big Apple, and another in Peru somewhere. 

Isn't it creative?! I think it lends greater interactivity to her designs, which somehow makes them more appealing.

Of course, as an artist, she not merely illustrates, but has come up with a wide range of products based on her preliminary drawings:



















Stickers!

Stickers

A "cray" notebook

This is actually a planner, which she started in 2016 and does every year

Again, Where the Wild Things Are

As you can probably tell, Kei has something of an obsession with Where the Wild Things Are, the children's book by Maurice Sendak. To this effect, she has an entire line dedicated to it (like the buttons above):

My favorite planner by her.

All the "Wild" stickers/ buttons/postcards featured above come from the Where the Wild Things Are collection, one in which she's been working continuously since she started illustrating. 

My two favorite illustrations of all time by her, however, are these: 

If you read my blog last semester, you probably know why. Go veggies!

And, of course:

Girl Power! Of course.

That's all for today, kids! Which illustration/series was your favorite? 

I hope I could brighten your day up with these bright, bright colors!

Stay artsy!

Andrea Tobar

Is this spring? The amount of sunshine we've been having says yes (and also the shocking amount of pale legs I've seen peeking from under shorts and skirts), but the thermometer still remains stubbornly low. In is (sun)light, I thought I'd introduce one of the sunniest Salvadoran artists I know:

Andrea Tobar (@tobiberta): 

Isn't she the cutest, too?

A recent graduate in Illustration and Fine Arts, Andrea Tobar creates small, quirky characters and brings them to life, imbuing them with her happy, cartoonish trademark style:

a tiny, fluffy doggo-unicorn. Unidogo. Doggicorn.

             

   


She also takes historical or Pop Culture figures and puts a spin on them, turning them into cartoon characters with a twist:

My favorite movie ever.

"Is that the little ghost from Ghostbusters?" - My dad

Captain America!

Master Yoda!

Look at those colors! Tobar's illustrations are characterized by her preference for light, airy hues and tones, and simple, clear-cut focal points. Instead of focusing too much on the background of a character, she puts enough detail on the character for it to be able to shine as a standalone.

One of my favorite collections of hers is "Hearts", a compendium of different digitalized illustrations depicting hearts in different situations:


       

In order, from left to right: Free Heart, Party Heart, Peaceful Heart, Spooked Heart, Friendzoned Heart, Fattening Heart, Tangled Heart, Arrowed Heart, Doubtful Heart and Amateur Heart (approximate translations).

She manages to make every single one of her designs unique and almost personable, and all of them extremely cute. As mentioned previously, she does put much more emphasis on the character than the background, therefore not creating a scene (something that I personally enjoy more, because I feel like it creates a story). Nonetheless, her use of color and excellent technique more than make up for the lack of action in the background, in my opinion.

As the previous illustrators all have done, Andrea Tobar has branched out with products besides her illustrations:

!!!

A giant panda on a small bag!

Calendars

Frida Kahlo T-Shirts!

Above, from left to right: calendars, notebooks, patches, stickers, pins and t-shirts.

Currently, she has an order-online-and-pick-up service, in which she delivers the packages to a local coffee shop to be picked up by her customers, and she's also a frequent seller in El Mercadito, which I talked about last week. Tobar doesn't, sadly, have an Etsy shop as of now, but I believe she's working on one to be rolled out soon! I'll keep you up to date.

Stay artsy!