To gain an insight into Lila Magallón’s latest art project, step into the bathroom of Galería La Encantada. At the bottom of an old-fashioned bathtub, you’ll find a mosaic universe created from hand-cut tiles: aquamarine sea creatures swim among abstract bubbles and slivers of tile that make up an ocean scene.

The bathroom is in a century-old house that Lila and her partner, Massimiliano Zingaro, are converting into an art gallery. This rented casa antigua in the historic centre of La Paz is their new home, as well as their future business. In the midst of massive renovations to prepare for the gallery opening Jan. 22, Lila has spent a hundred hours creating her mosaic in the depths of the family bathtub.

Why invest so much time on a tub that few members of the public will even see?

“It’s where I bathe my son,” Lila says. She describes how two-and-a-half-year-old Mateo makes a game of spotting the shrimp, the squid, the fish. She asks: “Why shouldn’t a bathtub be a work of art?”

Lila is a 39-year-old artist who has worked with clay, jewelry, marble, alabaster, pencil, paints and tile. She studied abstract painting and expressionistic figures with the Mexican master, Ramiro Torreblanca, in Guadalajara. She also studied with the world-renowned painter “Vladi” Vladimir Kibalchich Rusakov in Mexico City.

But it was back in La Paz, where a friend gave her five alabaster rocks to carve, that Lila fell in love with sculpture. She longed to study in Carrara, Italy, the mecca of marble sculpture, but within days of the enrolment deadline, she still didn’t have the money. Then, in what she describes as a “miracle,” Lila sold three pieces of art in one day — enough to pay her way.

Carrara was magical for Lila. She picked the largest rock she could find — a 220-kilogram hunk of marble — and worked 11 hours a day, fueled by coffee and hunks of bread. “When you love something, you forget everything else going on.”

She remembers Carrara as a place where everyone was coated in white marble dust, where the river ran white from the quarry upstream. The scene was surreal. Students would toss their rejected carvings into the water. Arms and heads would stick out from the white-running river. “It was a place engulfed in magic, and eerie.”

It took three months to ship Lila’s immense marble sculpture of a woman back to La Paz, where it found a buyer within days.

Lila sees her latest project as one monumental piece of art. She envisions La Encantada gallery as a creation that will engage all the senses.

FIVE SENSES ENGAGED

Of course, an art gallery offers lots to see: La Encantada will showcase paintings and sculptures by Lila and other Baja artists. But she and Massimiliano want visitors to see art in unexpected places, too. 

Lila describes the stone patio they are piecing together. Over coffee at a nearby sidewalk cafe, her excitement builds as she visualizes a giant abstract underfoot. “This piece of rock, that particular shape.” Her hands dance across the table. “A splash of red here. Your eye jumps from one rock to another!” 

The gallery aims to appeal to the ear, as well as the eye.  There will be some performances — an acoustic guitar playing Baroque music, perhaps. But the rest of the time, Lila wants visitors to tune in to the “natural lullaby” of the fountain and the breeze in the tamarindo and palm trees.

What about taste? Massimilano comes from a family of Italian wine makers, and so the gallery will serve wine, as well as cheeses and traditional Baja sweets such as dulce de biznaga.

The garden will smell of rosemary, basil and other aromatic herbs.

As for touch, visitors are invited to let water from the fountain trickle through their fingers, and to run their hands over the sculptures. In its first exhibition, La Encantada will feature work by Lila, Peter Cole and Nikki King.

WHY OPEN A GALLERY

La Encantada is an ambitious project at a time when other galleries in La Paz are struggling to survive. Finding success as an artist is challenge enough. I ask Lila why she is taking on this huge enterprise.

One reason is grounded in the past; the other reason looks to the future.

Lila’s roots are in La Paz. She has lived and studied in Guadalajara, Mexico City, Italy and in the U.S., where her mother Joanne grew up,  but her father’s family has lived here for six generations. She talks about the old Baja, the impact of the desert environment on its inhabitants.

“Paceños are special. Think of how hard it was to carve out life here, how special the people were who inhabited this place.” She says restoring this 1908 house is one way to honor the history of La Paz and to help preserve the soul of the community.

The fact that the house belongs to La Paz pianist and teacher Quichu Isáis Verdugo makes the restoration even more important. Lila’s father and Quichu knew each other as children. So did their parents.

“Quichu is one of our most important artists. She’s dedicated her life to teaching, and to helping those who make art,”  Lila says. “She’s a great inspiration and incentive to restore the house in a very honest way.”

Lila’s father, Alejandro, is a retired physician and former director of the military hospital in La Paz. But he is also “an artist at heart,” she says. Until Lila was 16, the family lived in Acapulco, where her father was director of the summer art school. Lila grew up surrounded by an appreciation of culture. Alejandro is a writer. Both parents are voracious readers. Lila’s grandmother, who lived with them, was a pianist and artist. There was always the smell of paint and solvents in Lila’s childhood home.

“I never had a moment of hesitation in knowing that I wanted to pursue a life of art,” she says.

And here’s where the story comes full circle. In this new gallery that’s also her home, Lila envisions her son Mateo growing up surrounded by art. His father Massimiliano studies guitar and writes poetry. Mateo will hear his dad’s music. He’ll watch his mom paint and sculpt. And he will live in a home that is, itself, a work of art.

“It’s a loving experience. I put put my entire essence into each little space,” Lila says. “It’s a way I can make it mine forever — after I’m gone, it will remain.”

La Encantada

Gallery, wine cellar and deli

Belisario Dominguez 1245

Between 5 de Mayo and Callejón Constitución

Hours: Tuesday through Saturday, gallery, café and wine bar open 5 to 10:30 p.m.