Salomon, The Artist

Last week Erin and I were walking up the main street when we walked past a small gallery. We haven't stopped in many stores because it's like shopping at the border in Mexico: everything is the same mass-produced stuff. But this place was different.

We walked in and met Salomon, an 84 year old man who has been painting for over 45 years and is about to start his 6th trip around the world exhibiting his paintings.

His paintings are all about Peru: the sites, the history, the people. He has paintings of the steep alleyways in Cusco. He has paintings of Incans. Our favorite paintings are his abstract paintings of the jungle, a splattering of the colors of the jungle without form.

He invited us to his museum where he has 30 murals of the history of his people from, "The Big Bang to present day." We visited his museum, which is also the bottom floor of his house, last night with two of our housemates.

He gave us a private tour through the murals which tell the history of the pre-incan people, the Incan kings, the Spanish conquest of the Incans, and the Peruvian revolution, led by Simon Bolivar, which gave Peru it's freedom.

It was truly a special and memorable night. We kind of figured it anyway, but our house mom told us he is a very famous painter. Here he is explaining a mural to us.