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”
No comments:
Post a Comment