Usually when I return home from a trip overseas, I am received by mail that leaves little inspiration or excitement. This time was unexpectedly different. I was surprised to find a painting created for an annual art show was featured in the local news paper.
I have been actively working outside the digital design realm, as another way to process my own grief after the tragic deaths of my family members in 2013. Art has an amazing ability to help process emotions and thoughts that cannot be otherwise expressed. Many issues in life are too complicated to be simply summed up in words. A picture can whisper a thousand conversations, to those who are willing to listen.
Last year, I was honored to be invited by a panel of international judges to show work at the 21st annual, Dia de los Muertos exhibit at Maude Kerns gallery. The opening of the show was a bright and joyful celebration of life, loss, and love. I dedicated my work that year to the recent death of my little sister and her two children.
http://starbunnystudio.blogspot.com/2014/10/dia-de-los-muertos-day-of-dead.html
_________________________________________________________________________________
Frances Ann Day summarizes the three-day celebration, the Day of the Dead—
| “ | On October 31, All Hallows Eve, the children make a children's altar to invite the angelitos (spirits of dead children) to come back for a visit. November 1 is All Saints Day, and the adult spirits will come to visit. November 2 is All Souls Day, when families go to the cemetery to decorate the graves and tombs of their relatives. The three-day fiesta filled with marigolds, the flowers of the dead; muertos (the bread of the dead); sugar skulls; cardboard skeletons; tissue paper decorations; fruit and nuts; incense, and other traditional foods and decorations. | ” |
—Frances Ann Day, Latina and Latino Voices in Literature
________________________________________________________________________________
|
This year, I had just the piece in mind to be entered for consideration by the Dia de los Muertos art jury. I was beyond thrilled to be invited back for the 22nd annual show. The piece above is one that I created at a live painting event, hosted by The Whiteaker Tattoo Collective last year. Working within the theme of loss, I created the painting entitled "Death By Flowers". http://starbunnystudio.blogspot.com/2014/10/its-that-time-of-year.html
The style of piece reflects the lively environment that it was created in. The night was just before Halloween, it was a rambunctious gathering fueled by provocative people and locally brewed alcohol. The rain fell non stop however, that was little concern to the party goers. I kept a drop that fell from the sky and ran the paint on the wet canvas, I figured it was meant to be there. Art, just as in life -another thing I had no way of stopping so I worked with it, welcomely embracing what had been offered.
As this time of year lends its self to mentions of gratitude, I would like to give a special Thank you to Maude Kerns Gallery, The Register-Guard Newspaper, and The Whiteaker Tattoo Collective for all your recognition and support of local artists. A big Thank YOU to the world wide network of readers and visitors to Star Bunny Studio! Wishing you all a Happy and Safe Thanksgiving Holiday.
http://www.mkartcenter.org/exhibits/2015/2015%20Dia/2015_Dia.html
http://registerguard.com/rg/life/weekend/33583580-289/walk-to-celebrate-past-lives.html.csp
https://www.facebook.com/WhiteakerTattoo/
