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Conjunto Painting

The two norteño musicians were strolling down the main street in the border town of Nuevo Progreso when a woman stopped to talk to them. She was an artist from just across the border, in McAllen, Texas, and she wanted permission to paint their portrait. Her name was Reefka and she had an eye for character in the subjects she spotted along the porous border along the Rio Grande Valley. She would snap pictures and ask questions about their lives, the better to capture their essence in her art. Her husband and creative partner, Steven Schneider, would then write poems or short prose paragraphs about the people they met, inspired by the paintings.

Of all the dozens of paintings in their collection, this one jumped out at me. It feels alive and vibrant, like the music itself. The hues in watercolors and pastels are warm, like the men’s expressions. And their strong bicultural identity is symbolized by their gear: white tejano hats on their heads and iconic instruments strapped across their shoulders, the accordion and the bajo sexto, a 12-string guitar played primarily by norteño groups.

“I start with the colors that express feelings of the people, warm bright colors,” said Reefka Schneider in a phone interview.

She also tried to capture what she calls “this interaction” between her two subjects, who somehow feel joined, though they’re not looking at each other. It’s simply titled “Conjunto,” which literally means joined in Spanish but which is also refers to the ensembles which play norteño music, the accordion-based style which forms such a major part of the Frontera Collection

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