2008 Woodie Awards
Dead Men Do Tell Tales at the FC Art Gallery
Day of the Dead artworks on display in the campus gallery.
Taylor Alfonso
Issue date: 10/24/07 Section: Entertainment
Funerals or thinking about the dead are usually considered morbid, horrifying and painful. However, the Mexican holiday, Dia De Los Muertos or The Day of the Dead, is the tradition of celebrating and remembering loved ones who have passed away and realizing that they are still close to us.
At FC's Art Gallery, the new exhibit, "Esqueletos," features folk art representing Dia De Los Muertos. The exhibit coincides with the upcoming holidays, All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2.
The art is contributed by Larry Kent, a Southern California collector of Latin American Art. The art chosen for this exhibit is created by the Linares family and their followers.
According to Gallery Director Beth Solomon Marino, the patriarch of the family, Don Pedro Linares created folk art for Easter and Dia de los Muertos.
His work was limited to only two times a year, but he began creating other art as folk art became of interest to collectors and curators.
Skeletons, skulls and images of the devil are usually frightening, but this Mexican folk art is funny, jovial and endearing. Off-white paper-mâché skeletons with black lines for bones are positioned in different, fun settings.
A piece called "Tres Equis" has four men sitting around a table playing cards, taking shots of tequila and drinking. Each wears a different hat and has a vibrant expressions.
In another scene, a mariachi band plays music while a man and woman dance around a sombrero in front of them.
The members of the band play a guitar, trumpet, cello and a harp. The male dancer wears the traditional ranchero-style black pants and jacket, while the woman wears her hair in pigtails secured with red bows, a pink shawl and a full, black skirt with printed flowers along the bottom.
Aside from the skeletons is a vibrantly painted skull in orange decorated with various designs and fantastic creatures in colors of blue, green, yellow and red. Those creatures take on a life of their own toward the end of the exhibit where these hybrid serpent-dragon-amphibian skull animals, decorated with dense designs and bursting with color, fly on the wall. They are representations of beasts that haunted Linares' dreams when he was a very ill as a child.
His sons and grandsons create these beasts as well and help carry on his legacy.
The exhibit is a great way to learn about Mexican traditions and gives viewers a new perspective on death.
Esqueletos
Fullerton College Art Gallery
Room 1004
On Display:
October 11-November 8
Monday-Thursday
10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Tuesday
5 p.m.-7 p.m.
At FC's Art Gallery, the new exhibit, "Esqueletos," features folk art representing Dia De Los Muertos. The exhibit coincides with the upcoming holidays, All Saints Day on November 1 and All Souls Day on November 2.
The art is contributed by Larry Kent, a Southern California collector of Latin American Art. The art chosen for this exhibit is created by the Linares family and their followers.
According to Gallery Director Beth Solomon Marino, the patriarch of the family, Don Pedro Linares created folk art for Easter and Dia de los Muertos.
His work was limited to only two times a year, but he began creating other art as folk art became of interest to collectors and curators.
Skeletons, skulls and images of the devil are usually frightening, but this Mexican folk art is funny, jovial and endearing. Off-white paper-mâché skeletons with black lines for bones are positioned in different, fun settings.
A piece called "Tres Equis" has four men sitting around a table playing cards, taking shots of tequila and drinking. Each wears a different hat and has a vibrant expressions.
In another scene, a mariachi band plays music while a man and woman dance around a sombrero in front of them.
The members of the band play a guitar, trumpet, cello and a harp. The male dancer wears the traditional ranchero-style black pants and jacket, while the woman wears her hair in pigtails secured with red bows, a pink shawl and a full, black skirt with printed flowers along the bottom.
Aside from the skeletons is a vibrantly painted skull in orange decorated with various designs and fantastic creatures in colors of blue, green, yellow and red. Those creatures take on a life of their own toward the end of the exhibit where these hybrid serpent-dragon-amphibian skull animals, decorated with dense designs and bursting with color, fly on the wall. They are representations of beasts that haunted Linares' dreams when he was a very ill as a child.
His sons and grandsons create these beasts as well and help carry on his legacy.
The exhibit is a great way to learn about Mexican traditions and gives viewers a new perspective on death.
Esqueletos
Fullerton College Art Gallery
Room 1004
On Display:
October 11-November 8
Monday-Thursday
10 a.m.-2 p.m.
Tuesday
5 p.m.-7 p.m.
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