The painter Ralf Walter, who was born in Dessau, left East-Germany and went to West Germany, then to New York City and further on to Mexico. More than 30 years ago he has discovered the sleepy fisherman village Chicxulub Puerto on the Gulf of Mexico together his wife who had sadly passed away. Behind his little mexican house with the turquoise window-shutters, his studio is hidden in a palm grove. Ralf tells us how the native weavers and their handling of colors had influenced him in his style and especially in the usage of color.

Thanks to Martín, whom we met randomly. Vis-à-vis he runs a small repairshop for car chassis and he has insisted on presenting us to his ‘Amigo Ralf’. © B. G.

The eccentric multimillionaire, offspring of wealthy scottish parents, was born in 1907. He was wellknown in the english nobility and was friend with surrealist artists such as dali and magritte. In 1947 he came to méxico and wanted to create his garden eden. In the mexican rainforest, 5 km east of the locality xilitla, he bought a piece of rainforest and planted numerous orchid plants, but all of them froze in a cold period in 1962. There upon he decided to immortalize the orchids in concrete as a scupture garden. With the help of innumerable construction workers, mostly resident otomí-idians, edward james built a fantasy garden which extends arbitrarily into the jungle without a recognizable system. Out of the 36 curious buildings, only one is habitable and many are or have not been completed. The eccentric principal , nicknamed by the mexicans as “the crazy englishman”, almost poured his conplete assets in conrete. He died in 1984 and probably hasn´t been able to enjoy the freedom in his garden eden, instead he instructed the construction workers for more than 20 years. To concrete was the goal.