In preparing for my first trip to San Miguel de Allende, I sought out reference books on the region and the town itself, as any traveler typically might. In addition to the usual tourist advice and how-to manuals on foreign travel, I found a number of books on the extraordinary architecture that often goes hand-in-hand with places of such historical significance. While fascinating and filled with outstanding portraiture, the viewpoint of these books was often of a wide-angled nature and I found myself unprepared for the riot of color and texture I encountered when stepping into the Centro Historico of this UNESCO World Heritage Site for the first time.

Like most small towns in Mexico, San Miguel’s architecture allows for the intense personal expression of color and texture without any sentimental or even practical consideration of what might exist next door. There is a particular joyousness to the unexpected yet harmonious clashes that arise from this pursuit of individuality, as well as an underlying order to what may at first appear to be chaos. This collection attempts to showcase the way in which intersections of color and texture can collide, creating unexpected art of surprising beauty.