Dia De Los Muertos-Part II

I wanted to share some additional pictures of the more contemporary artwork found at the Day of the Dead celebration from last weekend.

This was an art piece at one of the altars of a young man who had passed away.  I don't know if he created it or someone else did in honor of him.  The detail was amazing.

These were skeletons were at least 10ft. tall.  They were in all different color in this one area.  

Here's a very large skeleton in green.

Here are some contemporary skeleton dolls and little ornaments that one of the vendors made.  

Coke can skeleton from one of the student exhibits on display.

Skeletons made by 8th and 9th grade students using clay and a method called sgraffito.

A lady and man skeleton made all out of rice by local students part of an after school program.  You can also see their sugar skulls (calavaras de azucar) they made too.

And this is my favorite piece.  Look at all of the detail and the time it must have taken to create this chair.  Hope you enjoyed all of the work from the celebration as I did.  What fun!

Dia De Los Muertos

Dia De Los Muertos

This weekend my daughter and I attended the annual Dia de Los Muertos celebration in one of the neighboring towns in southern California.  It was so much fun.  Everything from the art work, vendors, food and altars were muy authentico.  

If you don't know what Dia de los Muertos, it is a Mexican holiday that is typically celebrated on the 1st and 2nd of November to remember and celebrate loved ones and friends who are deceased.  I have always loved mexican art and the craft art produced.  Everything from tin, paper mache, and wood carvings.  I also love the Las Calaveras Catrinas or the Elegant Skulls.  Mexican printmaker Jose Guadalupe Posada create "Las Calaveras Catrina" in 1913 and this image has been incorporated into Mexican imagery ever since.

Papel Picados

(cut paper designs)

Check out all of the colors of the papel picados.  They are so pretty and definitely require a lot of patience to make.  I love how the sun light is shinning on them.

Everyone, even the vendors had their faces painted.  Look how great she looks.  A lot of people had the big flowers in their hair too.

This is one of the beautiful altars with the traditional marigolds on it.

Stay tuned.  I will do a second post with more of the traditional art work and some contemporary.