El Dia De Los Muertos

So today is the first day in the Mexican Dia De Los Muertos/ Day of The Dead Celebrations, where the good folks of Mexico celebrate Loved-ones passed. The beauty of this ceremony is all the brightly coloured flowers and the skulls, puppets and masks, alongside the joyful music. Mexican's kinda see life and death in a very different way to most...

"The Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations kept skulls as trophies and displayed them during the ritual. The skulls were used to symbolize death and rebirth.
The skulls were used to honor the dead, whom the Aztecs and other Meso-American civilizations believed came back to visit during the monthlong ritual.
Unlike the Spaniards, who viewed death as the end of life, the natives viewed it as the continuation of life. Instead of fearing death, they embraced it. To them, life was a dream and only in death did they become truly awake."
Read more: http://www.azcentral.com/ent/dead/articles/dead-history.html#ixzz1cTiTjEyk

 

So anyway I thought now would be good time to give a Dia de los muertos shout-out to my Nanny June, who was a legend in the art of baking. We lost her earlier this year in a bit of a shock illness. But I am sure she would rather me remember her for making my 13th birthday cake with Dracula on and black desiccated coconut on the sides... awesome!

 

So last Friday we had Art Club and Rene, my Art-Partner in Crime wrote about it all in her diary and seeing as she is more eloquent than I ever could be, she has allowed me to rob her words!

 

"Last night was another drunken art night. The Coven descended on TheFro's where she was all set up with a big glass of plonk and her easel, painting... Chiquita or whatever her name ended up being, a beautiful skull in a festival of pinks, greens and golds.

Frida was made and fired months and months ago. I was dreading painting her. I had all these high-falutin ideas which I knew I could never carry off (leopard/paisley print skin being one) and I was anxious about messing her up.

I hate the painting part. I am not skilled with a brush and so I have a tendency to go as plain as possible, which annoys me as Fro sits there and splashes on colour and pattern to her merry heart's content. I sit there, tongue out, trying to maintain a clean white (never happens).

 Last night, I plonked myself down, cracked open a bottle of red and just started painting. I tried really hard not to think too much about it and, before I knew it, I had a very Mexican-looking Frida and a slight buzz from the wine. I liked how she turned out but I am a fool and forgot to take a photo.

Laura is even less confident than I am. She had a very pretty tile to paint. I think it was fired with Frida (our turn over is snail-paced; while Fro turns out beautiful canvases and electric ceramics constantly, it takes Laura and I six months to finish one project). Laura ended up going for a pretty red and green on the tile but managed to avoid going too Christmassy or Freddy Krueger-y. It'll look lovely hanging in her garden and she has plans to make a house number for her front door next. I think she caught the bug.

Once the paints were put away and the table cleared, that just left us with two jobs: chatting and polishing off the wine. We did both very well, I thought. We discussed Big Topics (current affairs, politics) and the usual stuff (dating, gossip) and had a very lovely time indeed.

Eventually, it was time to leave for home (via a drunken fast food run) and I left with the feeling of accomplishment and satisfaction that comes with a little creative diddling and a bit of quality time with The Coven. "

Such a lovely evening and beautifully written about! What fun though... Paint, gossip, a little Pearl Jam and wine... always a cracking combination! Photos to follow... until then I'm gonna go celebrate by having a little sing-song!