The batea is a simple wooden tray, a holdover from Panama's pre-Columbian cultures that still serves its unadorned utilitarian purpose in many a Panamanian household. Bateas come in a wide variety of sizes and shapes.

The batea is also a popular decoration, generally lacquered and painted and hung on a wall or used as the centerpiece of a table. The most common artwork painted onto bateas derives from the Coclean culture that was destroyed by Spanish conquerors, but whose original designs can be seen on ceramics recovered by huaqueros or archaeologists.

Janet Levi, a Pennsylvania native, an architect by education and artist by profession, a long-time Panama resident and the widow of the founder of the Universidad Tecnologica de Panama, uses the batea as a format for art in different traditions. A few of her works feature iguanas or other local reptiles, but none in the traditional Coclean style. A lot of her paintings portray Panama's black cultures, both Antillean and Cimarron. The cats among whom she lives form the inspiration for many of her creations.

The works shown here, however, use an ancient Panamanian medium to celebrate a different but probably more ancient culture, the Jewish one. (Yes, like all of the Spanish Empire Panama once had the Inquisition, whose primordial purpose was to eliminate the Jews, but these days the country has a thriving Jewish community that plays an important role in our cultural life.)

Levi's bateas and other art have won their share of local awards and acclaim, but she's still a struggling artist working in a market that doesn't pay its creative people anything nearly resembling the value of their work. To see more of her creations --- and to buy some over the Internet, if you like what you see--- visit Janet Levi's website at http://www.batealady.com.

Also in this section:
Batea Judaica
Panama Jazz Festival coming in September

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