Mexican Loteria
The Mexican Loteria is a game of chance, similar to bingo, that is played in Mexican homes. Each player has a tabla (similar to a bingo ticket) which is arranged with images on a 4 x 4 grid (16 total images per tabla). At the beginning of the game it is agreed that the winner is the first player to complete a row or column, for example, of 4 aligned or successive images in a specified direction (vertical, horizontal, diagonal, the four corners, etc.). The images are colorful, iconic and of highly recognizable subjects such as "the heart" (el corazón), "the bird" (el pajaro), "la rana" (the frog), "the umbrella" (el paraguas).
I grew up playing Loteria as a child while visiting relatives in Mexico and even in my home in the San Francisco Bay Area, often with my culturally diverse, non-Mexican friends. I recently began to incorporate the images of the cards into my paintings where I found inspiration from the Loteria card "el corazón" (the heart) when I was painting an image where the character is spray-painting the word "amor" (love) in the air. It seemed natural to include the image from Loteria - a recognizable, symbol of love. Corny, perhaps, and cliché, yes (and this is what appeals to me, actually, the intrinsic "low-brow", unapologetically kitchy sensibility!), but that led me to explore other of the Loteria traditional images. Below are a few paintings that I have created in this fun series where, in a sense, you can see that I have created a "painting within a painting".
el diablito - the devil
"app 2 b in bliss 2"
(card number 2, "el diablito")
acrylic, pencils, ink, & oil on paper
24 x 18 in © 2012 Gabriel Navar
el corazon - the heart
"app 4 soulsearching 2"
(card number 27, "el corazón")
acrylic, pencils, ink, & oil on paper
24 x 18 in © 2012 Gabriel Navar
el valiente - the brave one
"app 4 extremetimes 3"
(card number 12, "el valiente")
acrylic, pencils, ink, & oil on paper
24 x 18 in © 2012 Gabriel Navar
el valiente - the brave one (2)
"app 2 level playing fields"
(card number 12, "el valiente")
acrylic, pencils, ink, & oil on paper
24 x 18 in © 2012 Gabriel Navar
la rana - the frog
"app 2 level playing fields 3"
(card number 54, "la rana")
acrylic, pencils, ink, & oil on paper
18 x 24 in © 2012 Gabriel Navar
el paraguas - the umbrella
"app 2 level playing fields 2"
(card number 5, "el paraguas")
acrylic, pencils, ink, & oil on paper
24 x 18 in © 2012 Gabriel Navar
el borracho - the drunk
"app 2 b in bliss"
(card number 25, "el borracho")
acrylic, pencils, ink, & oil on paper
24 x 18 in © 2012 Gabriel Navar
The main character is a screaming man holding his smart phone over his head towards the sky wearing a t-shirt with the image of "el borracho" (the drunk). Is the "drunk" reference a sort of metaphor for self-medicating "escapism" in the context of potential "doomsday" paranoia? In the background is the little girl from the Morton Salt walking minding her own business. For many years, I have been inspired by the salt girl logo and have appropriated and re-contextualized her image. You can see more of those images in the "When It Rains" page.
la calavera - the skull
"app 2 b in bliss 3"
(card number 42, "la calavera")
acrylic, pencils, ink, & oil on paper
24 x 18 in © 2012 Gabriel Navar
la sirena - the mermaid
"app 2 stay tickled"
(card number 6, "la sirena")
acrylic, pencils, ink, & oil on paper
24 x 18 in © 2012 Gabriel Navar
I continue to explore my Mexican Loteria series, but now have hybridized and merged it with a few of my favorite Sesame Street characters (Jim Henson's characters are part of my "upbringing" and early education). A nerve was struck while I was watching one of the 2012 United States Presidential debates when the irrelevant Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, declared and threatened that he would cut and eliminate Big Bird by cutting PBS funding. Following that remark, the media, including, of course, social media, went into a frenzy mentioning how sad Big Bird became. Therefore, a Sesame Street oriented gallery has been created !
Painting Galleries
Visit my Painting Galleries: 
For over twenty years, image-making for me has been a passion and avenue for exploring experiences, dreams and preoccupations, including issues of our dependence on technology, consumer culture, relationships, spirituality, politics, and the human "theatre". The paintings are arranged into different galleries, grouped, chronologically (the earliest from 1993 and spanning into the present) and "themes", especially when I find myself working in a series of paintings inspired from my life experiences, memories, nostalgia and personal interest, for example multi-generational, cross-cultural, popular consumer-based iconography and imagery, such as Chespirito, the Morton Salt Girl, muppets from Sesame Street, the Mexican Loteria, and Art History Homages.
© Gabriel Navar 1989 - 2017 
You may contact me directly if you are interested in acquiring my artwork.