Sunday, November 2

November 2: Day of the Dead,

or Dia de los Meurtos, and All Souls Day, are festivals for family and friends to come together to honor the lives of loved ones that have passed, through prayer, remembrance, ritual, and celebration.

Meditation
detail


I learned about and experienced Dia de los Muertos mainly by having lived in Arizona for eight years, and visiting Mexico, and witnessing the celebration. However, I was drawn to the skeleton themed artwork long before that. Something about creating humorous, colorful figures of death made me feel good!  I also love the idea of celebrating a person's life through full remembrance - eating the foods they loved, listening to the favorite music they danced to, telling stories of their lives, good times, funny ones, and courageous ones...  What better way to fully bring that loved one back into your life again? 

Desert Dorothy and Toto, Too
detail

These are a couple samples of the artwork I made while living there, for a Dia de los Muertos show in Tucson.  They are made primarily from paper maché - wall paper paste, old newspaper, and cereal boxes - materials doomed for a trash death, rebirthed into these characters!


detail of 
Meditation 
back view

6 comments:

  1. Fantastic!!!
    Dorothy and scorpion Toto!!!! ROTFL

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  2. Karin, these are extraordinary ! I love them. I love the idea of making the dead humourous and playful as well - it does make one feel good and want to celebrate life !

    I used to do paper mache quite awhile back, especially with my grade one students when I was teaching - we recycled old telephone books - easy to make strips for the kids there ! It is such a wonderfully tactile medium, not to mention pretty "green". I never did pieces as intricate as yours though ! Maybe there is something to re-visit here for me ! Thanks for the reminder and the inspiration.

    Thanks too for your encouraging words about my little shop ! Much appreciated !

    I hope you are doing well. Sending healing blessings on this lovely Sunday morning !
    Kim

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  3. Oh my, my daughter will have to see this. she will love it. I love it too. I love the juxitaposition and life and death in these objects. They do tickle your funny bone..ss

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  4. Skeletons/images of death to me, are just another representation of who we are as human beings.

    When people forget this, they forget their own essence nature.

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  5. I am enjoying your blog and loving your papier mache pieces.

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