Mi Casa Azul Gallery in the Art District

Noelle Matthews
Jun 2, 2017
3 min read

My parents have been traveling to Mexico since the beginning of their relationship (they just celebrated wedding anniversary #38 to give you an idea about how long I'm talking about) and about ten years ago they decided to take the "plunge" and buy a home in Cabo– with the hope of retiring here one day.

Once settled into part-time Mexican life, my mom wanted to make one of her life-long dreams a reality: to open an art gallery featuring her art. The story of how she found her first location could be a blog post in and of itself, but in short my mom knew she wanted to be in the art district, stumbled upon a number of someone trying to sell (rather than rent), which in turn got her in contact with a local real estate agent (now broker) León Sáenz, who happens to now be my novio! Funny how life works out. My mom was always trying to set me up with guys–then when I moved here she became a bit more tranquila about it all, and then I ended up dating someone she has known for years! Anyway back to the gallery....

Here is the location when they first rented it out– a lot has changed since then (aside from the fact the gallery moved). First, my dad, aka "chainsaw Johnny", completely changed the facade of the gallery, then the city did a bunch of sidewalk work– which my dad capitalized on and put in some ground lights for the gallery– and finally, the owner of the building actually built a unit on top of this unit, which I think is a shame because it really took away from the classic Mexican feel of the street.

Another living-in-Mexico lesson: when they decide to do roadwork, be prepared for 6 months of the above on one street. It is crazy!!! Anyway, you can see the blue building is the gallery. This roadwork started right after my parent's finished all the work and opened up shop, talk about great timing!

I don't really know why the roadwork had to happen, but it changed the side walk– you can see now there are stairs to the right of the gallery versus just a small, gradual slope.

The gallery featured exclusively-blownglass, jewelry, textiles, art from mainland Mexico, and my mom's pieces. You can see more of my mom's work by visiting her website: Tamara Santini Art. Visitors to the studio enjoyed a vibrant oasis of creativity inspired by the ever-changing desert landscape and magnificent Baja coastline.

Mi Casa Azul Art Gallery's first location was in what was once one of San Jose’s original “founding family” homes. The building instilled a sense of old Mexican charm with its French doors that opened to the cobblestone street below. When the upstairs units were constructed, it took away a bit of the magic from the facade– but luckily our gallery dogs' cuteness was so distracting you barely noticed.

Tamara Santini (my mom) and her works of art in the foreground and background, out and about with some of her art supplies. Photos courtesy of Santini-Pinheiro Photography.

In March of this year, at the end of the gallery's lease, my mom made the difficult decision to leave the downtown art district– where she had been for nearly six years. Because she was out of town, I actually coordinated the whole move (with the help of León!), which was no small feat.

We are so excited to now be the first art gallery in the Animas area– right before Flora Farms, and I can't wait to share with you some of the changes we made with the gallery during the move and the final look of Mi Casa Azul Gallery in Animas Bajas! Photo courtesy of Santini-Pinheiro Photography.