For Gordon Frost, one of life’s biggest thrills is travelling "down the dusty trail and discovering something (hopefully, a weaving) you’ve never seen before." The dusty trail is in Guatemala where Frost, a collector of primitive Indian artifacts, has spent the last dozen years travelling and amassing an extensive collection.
Textiles Capture the Flavor of Guatemalan Culture
By Claudia Buck
California Life Staff Writer
FOR GORDON FROST, one of life’s biggest thrills is travelling "down the dusty trail and discovering something (hopefully, a weaving) you’ve never seen before."
The dusty trail is in Guatemala where Frost, a collector of primitive Indian artifacts, has spent the last dozen years travelling and amassing an extensive collection.
The major portion of that collection is a colorful array of Indian textiles—which he discussed recently in two slide and lecture programs presented at the Shepard Garden and Arts Center and the University of California at Davis.
The weavings, along with ceramics, dance masks and jewelry, are remnants of what may be a dying culture, says the 35-year-old collector. Frost, whose primary interest is in recording the culture before it vanishes, says, "Guatemala is changing … through radio, TV and Western clothes. I felt there was a cause to record the culture and its art."
THE INSPIRATION to do so came in 1967 when he was assigned to the Central American country as a Peace Corps volunteer. "It was a great opportunity to see these objects since there are very few who know that much about Guatemalan artifacts," he recalls.
Since that time, Frost has been returning annually to scout out new pieces for his collection. Travelling by a four-wheel drive vehicle, he negotiates the back roads of the mountainous Guatemalan highlands, exploring primitive villages. When he discovers a particular article of clothing or rug that captures his fancy, he "establishes a rapport" with its creator and then bargains for it with cash.
The villages he visits are primitive (some without electricity) with agriculture where the inhabitants raise corn, beans. Although he speaks fluent Spanish, Frost is often at a loss in communicating with residents who may speak any one of some 20 Maya dialects.
The weavings, which are produced both for ceremonial and functional occasions, are a collage of vivid purples, greens, turquoises, maroons, yellows, and reds. Figures resembling monkeys, chickens, deer, and birds are seen throughout the tapestries, but Frost says no one knows for sure what they symbolize. "You won’t find any credible authority that will go out on a limb and positively say this symbolizes this." states the collector.
BOTH SEXES ARE weavers in the remote villages — the women working on the backstrap looms anchored around their waists; the men weaving yardage on foot looms.
"They make them for themselves out of their love for their culture, not for (the marketplace)," says Frost, who earned an economics degree from the UCLA. "But as soon as they no longer identify with that, they will stop (producing)." Before that happens, the youthful collector hopes to have acquired a representative sampling.
In the meantime, Frost has turned his fascination with Guatemalan culture into a full-time occupation, lecturing throughout the state, organizing museum shows and leading small study (tour) groups to many of Guatemala’s Indian villages
