Thanks to Rebecca at Recuerda mi Corazon and Stephanie at Mango Studio, this is today's entry for the Dia de la Bloglandia Sunday challenge for the month of October. We are sharing how we are preparing for the celebration of the Day of the Dead--The Art of Remembering. Some of you who are not familiar with this Mexican custom can find out more about it any number of places, but I like this site called Day of the Dead in Mexico.
I took photos with three of my cameras today of a small treasure Frida skull and since my really good Nikon 35MM DSL is in the shop right now, I thought for sure my handy-dandy new Nikon point and shoot would do great. For some reason I don't understand, all those photos are corrupted because of a truncation and I can't get it to load on my laptop either. So, here I am with all these fancy electronic gadgets and I began to wonder if some voice on high was saying, your little quickie art work isn't meant to be out there. I have spent at least two hours fiddling with all this stuff and am using a photo I'm not particularly pleased with from an old Olympus camera, but here you have it.
Almost all the art I create is made from recycled materials and I picked up this little frame for 25 cents at the Church of Religious Science flea market on Saturday. The Frida image is a rubber stamp I did purchase at the Carson Rubber Stamp Convention this summer. I stamped on the back of an old greeting card and then mounted it on a recycled piece of black cardboard. I colored it with pens and oil pastels.
Why all this frugality with most my art supplies and why am I perpetually critical of all the art work I make? I guess the frugality came from my being raised by parents who suffered greatly in the depression and relocated from Michigan to California with four young daughters--and then along I came, the last unplanned baby. (All were unplanned, mom said, but all were loved.) Times were hard financially for mom and dad even later in my growing up years, but I learned to stretch a dollar until it squeaked. My dad was a sustainable "green" man long before it came into our consciousness and he taught me to take joy in thrift shops as I was growing up. He composted, and grew his own fruits and vegetables, and was convinced the American political system was going to hell in a handbasket. I've just taken the frugality to an extreme throughout my life; it's like a game to me in some ways, but now I am attempting to reduce my carbon footprint and recycle whenever I can--to help save the planet.
My parents, God rest their souls, and all my ancestors and deceased loved ones, will be honored this year in my ofrenda which I'll put up sometime mid-month. I have found the dollar stores this year to be an especially rich treasure trove of frugal Day of the Dead ephemera. Our monthly SoulCollage group will celebrate Day of the Dead at our next meeting where everyone will bring photos and memorabilia of their beloved dead. We are all bringing a traditional Day of the Dead dish to share. A few of my friends have agreed to go to the big San Pedro Day of the Dead celebration in San Pedro on Oct. 30.
Why am I so critical of my ability as an artist? I know these are not true assumptions, but I was not educated as an artist and have little innate artistic sense. But, these erroneous thoughts probably come from many teachers I had over the years who told me I didn't have the artist gift--but that I was a gifted writer. I'm so glad I was encouraged in that way. I want to honor those teachers, too, this month of October. I have never honored them before. Thanks, Rebecca and Stephanie.
Some of you have commented in the past that you are uncomfortable with the Day of the Dead festivities, but just remember we are celebrating our deceased loved ones. They are always only a thought away.
