I have traveled and worked in Mexico for many years. I love the foods and cultures and the people I’ve met. I’ve had a lot of fun adventures and there are many stories to tell. But there is one cultural phenomenon that really resonates with me, the celebration of Dia de los Muertos. I was in Sonora near Ciudad de Obregón one year during the celebration. Driving around we passed by a cemetery that was covered in marigolds, candles, photos, loaves of bread and all manner of other items. I had not seen such a thing before, and my colleague explained the meanings and symbolism. It had an impact. I felt drawn to it and thought it was a wonderful way to celebrate life and death and those that have gone on before us.
I've since married into a Mexican American family with strong Indigenous roots, and now I get to celebrate with them. We have an ofrenda full of photos of family and friends that have passed on. We decorate it in October with various artifacts that we’ve collected or that I’ve picked up in my travels to places like Tlaquepaque. We have sugar skulls, marigolds, Talavera candles, a dish for salt and a pipe (for all the grandpas that used to smoke). On the night of November 1st we put out a glass of water, fill the dish with salt, set out a pan de muerto (maybe sample it to make sure it’s good enough), light some candles and leave out a couple other little treats for those with a sweet tooth.
I wanted to honor this celebration through art for my family. A few years ago, I did paintings of an ofrenda and a sugar skull, but they weren’t quite what I was going for. Since then, we’d seen some amazing clay catrinas from Michoacan and really fell in love with those delicate and ornate figurines. We’d also visited The Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s presentation of "Mixpantli — Space, Time, and the Indigenous Origins of Mexico," a 2021–2022 exhibition marking the 500th anniversary of the fall of Tenochtitlan. This exhibit included so many pre-Columbian artifacts including skulls adorned with turquoise and other gem stones and precious metals. When I was ready to attempt another ofrenda, I knew it would have to include a skull similar to what I saw at this exhibit.
All of which led me to this Dia de los Muertos series of drawings using colored pencil on black paper. I wanted the images to have deep shadows and contrast reminiscent of a candle-lit night.
The first piece is of an the ofrenda. The dominant feature is the Aztec skull, not a typical modern sugar skull. Instead it represents the ancient roots of this alter. Its presence is a reminder of the origins, that it survived colonization, hence the Talavera cross, and it is looking forward because after all this time, the spirits of the past have not and will not fade away.
I included a peek at Domingo's guitar, my wife's grandfather who passed before they could meet. I included a drawing featuring just the guitar in the series. From the stories, we know that his guitar accompanied him everywhere he went. The rest of the piece includes traditional elements found on alters - pan de muerto, flowers, a piping hot cup of champurrado (or café, depending on the preference) and a few papel picado in the background, all illuminated by the warm light of a candle in a barro holder.
