Another unexpected artist meeting, the best one!
My favourite Saskatchewan sculptor and one of Canada's leading visual artists was at a Cuban wedding celebration we had the good luck to be invited to. The party was a fun experience but I was way more excited about chatting with Joe Fafard than digging into my bowl of the whipped cream custard wedding cake.
Everyone loves Joe's work. His animals and people are full of character and sincerity, just like Joe himself, a straightforward, modest man who I'd admired since my university days. A gentle, quiet person, known for his humour and generosity and greatly loved by his Cuban friends.
Here's how I met him at the wedding of people we didn't even know...
We were leaving on a Cuban adventure in 2012 and Saskatchewan friends asked us to deliver a wedding card and money gift to a Cuban couple getting married on Valentine's Day. OK, we'll give it a try, why not? We had planned to visit the popular city of Trinidad, the wedding locale, in central Cuba anyway.
As soon as we arrived we questioned various locals and easily tracked down the groom, a well-known musician named Pachi, in a bar in Trinidad, a tourist town so full of Cuban charm and history it's a UNESCO World Heritage Site. He responded with a huge smile and an invitation to his wedding the next day.
What luck! (My wise mother had advised us to make sure and deliver the card before the wedding, for that reason.)
And that's where we met Joe and his wife Alyce.
Joe and Alyce were good friends of the wedding couple. They had met in Regina where Alyce had acted as an agent for the two Cuban musicians, and had been guests in their home in Cuba many times.
Cuban marriages are normally official civil procedures, so it was just the reception we were invited to, which was held in Pachi and his bride Lia's colonial home built in the 1700's. What an honour for us, strangers from Canada who were welcomed as last-minute guests.
A year later we had a wonderful visit with Fafards at their home near Lumsden, SK. It was such a pleasure to tour the acreage and studio. Alyce loved our VW camper van and was determined to find one, which she eventually did.
Joe Fafard died from cancer in 2019. Pachi and Lia, the wedding couple, came from Cuba to perform at his memorial at the Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina.
Days later we attended a concert they presented in Joe's honour at the Slade Gallery, owned by his daughter, Gina Fafard.
You can Google Joe Fafard and see many of his wonderful sculptures online.
Good-bye Joe, I'm happy to have met you.
