Dia de los muertos

The beginning of November marks the beginning of the spanish folk holiday celebrated by many cutures as "Day of the Dead" where cultures host a week of celebration in remembrance of family and friends who have passed on.

Being in the Midwest, we don't have as many authentic celebrations as say, the south west.

This holiday first intrigued me by the bright colors, and skeletons having a good ol time, and not letting the whole "death" thing get in their way of a lively celebration. It's something TABOO that most people in the United States won't understand, but as an artist, I've come to appreciate this folk traditions and beliefs of the Latino Culture, because they tell a story of many things that are often held at a "hush-hush" tone.

The majority of the work I sell features the Day of the Dead theme with the beautiful Catrina, and her romantic suitor dawning a top hat, and his devilsh grin. I don't have pictures of my pieces unfortuantely, but I do have pictures of me at POR VIDA, which was held in Columbus, OH and celebrated pieces inspired by Dia De Los Muertos, and how many of the artist cope with death.

In other exciting news: WE'RE GETTING THE KILN! Horray-hurrah! We had an overwhelming vote of support through e-mails from board members after I replied to mass e-mail about how beneficial the kiln would be for classes, and teaching!

I can't wait to see the kiln, and get it up and working!

The official board meeting is on Wednesday! I'm extremely excited! :D

It's quite funny after I typed that, because I realized that I have to pick up my finished pieces from Mayco on the same night, so my excitement turned into, "OMG WHAT AM I GOING TO DO!???" lol

I really need to start using my planner more. :)

Ooooh! Lookie what I found! A finished piece that goes with the theme. I started this lady back in July!

Art Crawl

Art Crawl was good to me last night, and I sold some of my original day of the dead pieces that showed in the exhibit. So, it looks like I'll be back in the studio keeping busy!

Time flies when you're throwing on the wheel! I finished up a couple of pieces on Friday!

If you happened to have stumbled upon my blog from a business card, then please 'Like' my official page on Facebook, so you can keep up with updates, my blog postings, and any information on sales, or exhibits! I don't post ALL the time, so don't worry about me spamming up your front page with useless crap. :)

Check it out ...... HERE!

I'm working on getting my photos back from my photographer to get my ETSY store posted soon. Keep an eye peeled for my store launch! I'll have plenty of pieces to sale!

I hope everyone is enjoying, or enjoyed their weekend!

Thanks for stopping by!

Move forward

"Failure will never overtake me if my determination to succeed is strong enough."

Well, obviously I'm not going to make the July 25th deadline, which is next week, because it would require, bisque firing the kiln, one day of cool down, clear coat glazing kiln firing, another day of cool down, and then photographs, editing photographs, setting up paypal and an Etsy account, which can be quite time consuming in itself. Not to mention with the huge loss from my meltdown catastrophe a few months back, I've lost a lot of inventory that needs to be made up.

Now, there is a big gathering down in Cincinnati for the holiday season, which I will be striving for, and juried entries will be accepted until September 5th. I will most definitely be giving this show a shot, so I don't have to label the year a complete loss.

To my sadness around a gallon of my porcelain slip was mostly dried out, so there's more money at a loss. My stoneware clay had small remnants in it, which I'm either guessing is rust, mold, or dead bugs, but it still molded perfectly when I used it.

Here is a Catrina piece I am working on. I had a picture of the back of her hat, but the resolution is too small to notice the details, so here are two pictures until I can get back to get some more pictures. It's hard to see the details since she is so dark from the clay still being wet.

A front view of my Dia de los Muertos Catrina bust

A back view of my Catrina bust. Calla lilys adorn her back almost like small wings. Her wide brim hat has two sparrows carrying heart string in their mouth from a small heart, which sets in between them.