Help bring colorful Alebrijes to Burning Man!

Hi, my name is Laura Salcido and I am a San Francisco-based artist fundraising to bring three large, colorful Alebrijes to Burning Man. Alebrijes are traditionally small, wooden animals from Oaxaca, Mexico that are brightly painted. My Alebrijes will be larger than life and interactive.

The alebrijes I am bringing will be a 6' tall howling coyote, a 5' wide desert turtle, and an 8' winged horse. Multi-colored benches will accompany the pieces so participants can spend time sitting with the animals and observing the humans interacting with them. At night the sculptures will be lit by black light, bringing out new dimensions to their character.

As of early August, all 3 sculptures and benches have been built, and we are currently painting and adding the final touches. But we still need your help to get this art to the playa!

This project is important to me because, although I have brought many smaller art pieces to Burning Man throughout the years, this will be the first installation that celebrates my Mexican heritage. It is the most ambitious in scope and execution of all my art projects. I want to showcase the beauty of Mexican Folk Art. For me, Alebrijes are the ordinary made extraordinary through the use of vivid color and unexpected scale. As a child, they encouraged me to expand my imagination. Alebrijes show the beauty, magic and wonder in that which is different. I am excited to bring that gift to Burning Man.

The funds all go to the fabrication and transportation of the art. Specifically, these funds will be used to pay for the manufacturing of the steel base of the animals, cloth material and special glue to cover the sculptures for painting, paints, black lights to capture the fluorescent colors, batteries for the lights, benches, hardware, and transport of sculptures to/from the event.

After Burning Man I hope to display the Alebrijes in other locations and cities so that they can continue to live and inspire.