October 30, 2016

The Day of the Dead in San Miguel


Art works in honor of Dia de Los Muertos should emphasize the spiritual over the commercial. Much of the art work I’m seeing around town is much more commercial than it should be. It is dead art. Caterinas, painted skulls, and skeletons abound. Is this respectful to the sacred tradition of the holiday? Families get together to make flowers and use them to adorn altars, they gather at home or at el cementerio to remember their departed loved ones, they DO NOT dance around with someone dressed up as a Catrina, and to multiply these Catrina figures (a skeleton dolled up as a tawdry female, for those who don’t know) does a terrible disservice to the spiritual beliefs of the occasion. You might even go as far as to call it sacrilegious. As art in honor of the day, it is all rather tasteless.



Other subjects related to the holiday are more imaginative and meaningful. Take, for example, my painting “Making Flowers for the Day of the Dead” (see below). I painted this while I was still living in Zacatecas, a city, I am happy to say, that has eschewed or at least avoided the commercialism of San Miguel in this regard. The image is of three women, an old woman and her granddaughters, making flowers to be used on an altar. The old woman looks directly at the viewer because she is prepared for and willing to face Death, who is not in the picture but should be understood to be standing before the group. The two younger women look askance, over their shoulders because they sense the presence of Death but are not ready or willing to face him – it is not their time.





                                                “Making Flowers for the Day of the Dead”