Monday, October 31, 2011

Dia de los Muertos

Happy Halloween! 

Hostess Tami here today to share a special post on this All Hallow's Eve...

San Antonio is near the border of Mexico, so we have a large Hispanic population here that brings with them some wonderful traditions from home. One of those traditions is a celebration called Dia de los Muertos - or Day of the Dead. And far from being a morbid celebration as the name might suggest, it is actually a time of family and remembrance; a time to honor and to celebrate the lives of lost loved ones and friends.

Families gather in cemeteries to decorate gravesites with beautiful designs done in marigolds. Then, they spend the day picnicking on the favorite foods of the departed and sharing stories and memories of them. At home, ofredas, or alters, are built using photos, flowers, candles and even foods favored by the deceased to honor them. Dia de los Muertos is traditionally celebrated over 2 days, both catholic holidays, All Saints' Day on November 1 and All Souls' Day on November 2. But here in San Antonio, it usually begins on Halloween and stretches through the last hours of All Souls' Day.

And although the figures and designs used a a bit macabre', mostly skulls and skeletons engaged in various activities, the colors are anything but. You'll find bright hues in every color of the rainbow used to embellish these pieces. 

So, to create my own decoration for Dia de lost Muertos, I started with a paper mache' skull mask and dressed it up...


I first added a layer of a script pattern stamped using Wicked Black Dye Ink. The same ink was applied using Stylus and Tip to distress all the edges too. Then the skull was sprayed with several bright and shimmery colors of Smooch Spritz and topped with a light spritz of Vanilla Shimmer for a pearly touch...

Then, since flowers are an integral part of any Dia de los Muertos celebration, I sprayed white paper flowers with Smooch Spritz to create a colorful bouquet to scatter across the skull. The flowers were stamped with different backgrounds to add interest and texture to the finished piece...



Rhinestones were added for the eyebrows and flowers used as eyes to add a touch of whimsy that is a popular feature in the art of this celebration...

And for just a touch of macabre', the teeth were tinted using Moonlight Smooch...

The flowers that are grouped by the mask were made from white tissue paper using techniques similar to those used to make traditional "fiesta" flowers, but with a few twists of my own. After the flowers were made, they were spritzed with several shades of Smooch Spritz...

 
I'm sure this project would NOT pass for a "tradtional" piece of Mexican Art, but it's this gringa's take on this wonderful celebration of life, death, family and remembrance.

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I hope you enjoyed this project and a bit of the history surrounding it's inspiration. May your Halloween be spooky with just a little kooky thrown in for good measure!

Posted by tami sanders at 12:01 AM
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