Twenty-seven years ago, Sam Leonard and her husband left home in Utah with plans to visit Puerto Vallarta for a month. That month stretched into years, and finally, the couple decided to purchase property. Sam fell in love with a charming hacienda, complete with a house and guest casita, nestled behind a privacy wall. Her husband stayed for 16 months. Sam has never left.
An old proverb states, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” When the dust had settled after her husband’s departure, “necessity” became the driving force behind Sam’s survival. With everything gone, including furnishings that had been unlawfully carted off, Sam found herself starting from scratch. But she still had the house!
“I saw the potential here,” she recalls. “The property found me, and I had to figure out what to do with it.”
Sam decided to turn the property into an art retreat. She would create an environment where instructors could hold workshops, where artists could find inspiration to fuel creative energy and experiment with art uninhibited. She admits, “I naively thought it was a way I could also take classes to learn more.”
But first, she had to have furniture.
In past years, as Sam took on numerous entrepreneurial endeavours to earn a paycheck, she had also been honing her artistic talents.
“I started sculpting with paper,” she recalls. “I would dumpster dive for old telephone books and blended them up. I made armatures with copper wire and started adorning the paper sculptures with beads, which was how I was introduced to fusing — and that led to metal working.” This was long before tutorials and online classes, she adds. “But I did take an adult education course in Utah on furniture-making.”
That course might have helped save the day. “Some of my furniture made its way back to me, but mostly, people gave me furniture and I painted it, and I made things out of pressed board. I read books on how to make floorcloths so I could cover the tiled floors. I had to use materials that were readily available. No fancy expensive acrylics. I used house paints,” she says. “I acted out of necessity. I did what I had to do.”
And so, her creation, Hacienda Mosaico, began.
The hacienda, originally called “Pavo Real” (Royal Turkey, i.e. Peacock), was built in 1956 by the prestigious Marroqui family, who started a thriving hotel business in the years when Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor came to town to shoot The Night of the Iguana. Architecturally, the traditional Mexican home has good bones; thick adobe walls with a stucco finish, tiled roof and arched doorways and windows. Plus, a tall adobe wall surrounding the property provides privacy for the oasis within. Those walls, inside and out, plus the floors, ceilings, windows, pathways and gardens … all have become part of Sam’s creation, whether it be through the artwork adorning them or the surfaces themselves that have become canvases for art.
This has been no small task over 20 years, when you consider the property has also been expanded to include her studio and an outdoor kitchen. To give you a sense of scale, Hacienda Mosaico has eight bedrooms, 10.5 baths, a workshop, pool, patio areas and three kitchens, plus public and private living spaces.
As a self-taught artist, Sam explains, her work often has an arbitrary and intuitive starting point. “Creating art for me is challenging, but the endless possibilities make it an integral part of how and why I enjoy each day. My home is my best palette,” she says. “It’s a crazy mix of styles, stuff I’ve made and collected and little adjustments I’ve made to the structure itself. It’s me, though, and nobody who really knows me and has seen it would think other- wise. I believe it is important that people take an active hand in creating their environments, since their environments take such an active hand in creating them.”
Sam’s aesthetic is guided by her sense of whimsy and layer upon layer of color, texture and pattern. She often uses found materials in her work. “I love the process of reordering existing objects and discovering new ways to extend the life of them by recycling and redefining uses. I love the natural visual and tactile pleasures of manipulating materials into pieces of beauty and function. I enjoy being able to work in both two and three dimensions, turning ideas into something of substance and form,” she notes.
When Sam began this part of her art journey, she took a month and travelled all around Mexico and Guatemala with a friend: “I went to markets and scrounged around in bins. I’ve used the fabric from clothing that indigenous people wear to cover cushions. In Guadalajara, I purchased things such as a hand-painted canvas costume and masks, that are still used in ceremonial celebrations.” She has incorporated these, along with Mexican hand- blown glass and paintings from local artists, to achieve Hacienda Mosaico’s ambience.
The costume-and-mask ensemble dominates a wall in the front sitting room, a place where those who enter the home can start to enjoy a total immersion into, and be inspired by, art.
One is drawn beyond this room into a dining/living room area rivaling any art museum. Here, light spills through tall glass vases sitting on wide windowsills, their images reflected on an expansive glass tabletop resting on two massive pieces of agave root. This one-of-a-kind dining-room table is surrounded by metal banana-leaf chairs designed and created by Sam. Nearby, a glass and metal cabinet (also created by the artist) sports funky shoe molds for legs!
Sam primarily utilizes glass, metal and canvas, noting: “They produce wonderful collaborations, but I am particularly struck by the potential of glass and its dimension, clarity, color reflectivity and environmental presence.”
Continuing to explore this art-filled space, one recognizes her signature layers — from the lively painted floorcloths to a traditional equipale sofa
covered in brightly patterned fabric, topped with cushions in more colors and textures that lend a bohemian vibe. A full-size wooden Catrina lounges in a chair, her outstretched legs resting on another one of Sam’s creations — a funky footstool. An intricately painted folk-art cupboard, designed by Sam and hand-painted by artist Jesse Reno, dominates a corner. One longs to hear the stories behind each painting adorning the walls and the quirky sculptures artfully displayed on numerous tabletops — the tables themselves works of art!
Finally, visitors cannot resist the temptation to search for the source of splashing water. Outside an arched doorway, a beautiful mosaic features playful swimming fish, the backdrop for a gurgling fountain.
“One of the best things I did was to have the arch at the back of the house built,” says the artist. “And when that was done, I added mosaic work on the floors inside and I built the water fountain and the mosaic on the back wall. I just sketched it on the wall and started.”
Part of the evolution of Hacienda Mosaico had a lot to do with Sam’s initial vision. Remember the idea to invite instructors to teach workshops? Where would they come from? Who would they be?
“I went through Somerset magazines and I found out who was teaching and where, and I invited them to come,” says Sam. “It took off from the beginning.”
Teachers and students now come from around the world. They learn about Hacienda Mosaico via word of mouth, and many have become good friends. Two of those teachers, Bonnie Fitzgerald and Laurel True, have returned time and again. They and their students are responsible for the other mosaics adorning the walls of Hacienda Mosaico. The colourful, sparkling mandalas are Laurel’s passion and greet visitors beginning on the outside walls by the front entry and continuing around the property. Bonnie’s creations are the whimsical characters, such as the Mexican Catrinas raising a glass to guests on the walls of the casita.
A testament to the change Sam has made in the lives of others came in a recent email message from Bonnie. “Have I told you lately I adore you?” she wrote. “I am truly grateful for the opportunity to work with you, some of my very favorite artworks live with you!”
Some of these artworks peek out through the lush greenery of the hacienda’s gardens, others beckon one to wander down a pathway or linger in a hidden sitting area — each decorated with more sculptures and garden furnishings created by Sam.
“Everything has been a natural progression and evolution,” she says. “The pathways were all here, I just added things. In the beginning, I purchased plants for $2 at nearby nurseries.”
Now several varieties of palm trees tower over the site. Fruit trees — banana, mango, a star fruit tree, avocado — all grow amongst bird-of-paradise, vermilion and the prolific heliconia, and provide privacy from curious outsiders.
Eleven years ago, Sam found someone else to share her passion. Her husband, Xenofon, is responsible for the cactus and fern gardens on the property; when the mosaics cannot be finished in a class, he completes them. His current projects involve facelifts to some of Sam’s original creations. “After Xeno showed up, I didn’t have to push myself so much,” she says.
When it comes to her art, Sam muses, “I create what I enjoy and enjoy what I create. I have no message to convey, no outrage to share. My art comes from my simple self, and I do not challenge, question or analyze it. I share it.”
Hence, Hacienda Mosaico has come to fruition. “It exemplifies the power of group expression, ceremony, and celebration,” says Sam. “Artists are invited to play, be spontaneous and follow their heart. Magic and wonders are possible when creative passion speaks. If you can’t evoke emotions, you don’t create art.”
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From Lori Siebert | Given that I LOVE teaching and being with kindred creatives and I LOVE Mexico … Hacienda Mosaico looks absolutely dreamy!! The gorgeous colorful mosaics … the artfully crafted furniture … the folk-art finds that wind through this property provide eye candy at every turn!! I would LOVE to teach here one day!
