Perhaps because I lived in San Francisco for so many years with it's enormous hispanic community my version of Halloween in much more akin to Dios de los Muertos; a celebration of those who have died.
Every year on November 1st and 2nd all over Mexico people 'celebrate' the lives of their beloved dead ones. Lovers, brothers, mothers and sisters not to mention 1st and 2nd cousins and anyone else deemed important. Little skeletons of these special people are made, often doing what the person being honored used to do. In my collection of 'skeletons' one is a camping scene. Two skeletons with yellow hats are sitting under a full moon playing music as they lean up against a Joshua tree. Laying at their feet, is a sleepy eyed dog, just waiting for the next adventure. The most recent addition to my 'skeleton family' is a sexy woman in a red dress showing just a bit of leg. I love the playful nature of Dios de los Muertos which is why I have been wanting to go to Mexico during the holiday for over a decade to celebrate.
I am so happy to say this is the year. Because (due to my own recent near death experience) I couldn't possibly go alone I am going with Michael deMeng (google him, he's fab) and a group of a dozen or so others. Michael is an awesome assemblage artist who I met several years ago at Artfest. He was teaching a class on using old polaroids as mini canvases. The end product was a 3 dimensional piece that you looked into as if it was a little world inside a 3" x 3" frame. I would have dig around really deep in my old files to find the pictures. So you will just have to trust me on this one when i say they were 'fricken awesome'.
It's occurring to me as i write this that both of my most recent pieces have had a distinctly hispanic edge to them. In my piece called 'the resurrection of Yo' she looks to me like she was born and raised in Oaxaca. The piece I did at Art and Soul begins with a drawing of a skeleton's head with a blood red path that flows from the area where the doctors drilled into my head. No wonder the minute I saw the drawing I knew I had to work with it. (There's a small picture below... before I worked with it and another one after. I am aware that many might see it as a tortured soul sort of piece. Especially if you don't notice all the music that frames the collage. But it was really done in the spirit of Dios de los Muertos; a tribute to my previous self and to the new person I hope to become.
Nothing like a 'near death experience' to turn one's life around. And I am so looking forward to this trip to Oaxaca, Mexico and all the transformations it promises to bring. Many, many pictures when I get back, I promise.
After a visiting the several shops where they make alebrijos we came upon a tiny town where the famous potter Sofia Reyes lives. Sofia is 90 yrs old. We were so honored when this living legend gave us a demonstration of her technique. She uses NO pottery wheel. Instead she balances the clay on two inverted dishes. The picture to the left shows her transforming a lump of clay into a vessel. Note, only the hands are moving. She has been doing this all her life and has also taught her daughters and their daughters to make the black pottery. The pottery is fired in an outdoor, underground 'kiln' of sorts. It looks like a simple hole in the ground though I am sure there is much more technology to it than that. I had no more room in my luggage by this point so I did not buy anything from her amazing inventory. But many of the group I came with did. While we were in her shop much ruckus could be heard in the streets. Turned out a mini parade was going by with all the town's children dressed as muertos. I went back to sit on the bus with Damien the handsome and flirtatious driver who offered me some local made bread. I had to refuse since most 'local's' food is made where they have no running water and it is way too easy for a gringa like me to get sick. But as I was waiting for the others to return I saw a lovely little old lady walking home in the rain and I took a picture of her thru the bus windshield. I thought it came out pretty sweet. Next entry is a vignette with pictures of the visits to the alibrijas wood carvers.... 
