The first piece, “Dia De Los Mouseos, Execution Uno”, was more on the approach as ‘a study on skulls’. This piece, entitled “Dia De Los Mouseos, Execution Dos”, was far more intricate in detail, and as my hand got used to the drawing and redrawing of the skulls, the individual pieces became more complex along the way. I decided to get some inspiration on where I first learned of “Dia De Los Muertos” (Day of The Dead), and traveled 381 miles North to San Francisco to focus heavily on this painting, and how I could make it more balanced. You would think that I would be traveling to the border instead, but I’ve found that most Day of the Dead art was more heavily saturated in San Francisco. I may say this because SF is far more compact and therefore visually saturated than any Californian city, but I digress… I just traveled to where this holiday and cultural tradition would make sense from a nostalgic standpoint, as well a well connected cultural reference point for the piece.
When I had first moved from San Francisco from Georgia (and my eleven month stay in Philadelphia), I had little to no education on Mexican culture. In fact, being raised in Georgia, which was predominantly African-American and Caucasian, I had very little contact and information of Mexican or any other race out there. When I had moved to SF, I was heavily saturated in Mexican , Chinese, Russian, and Japanese culture upon impact. My lack of knowledge left me feeling quite uneducated and insecure, so I sought to educate myself on other races and their traditions.