Staging

To view of slide show of us staging our altar for Dia de los Muertos tomorrow, click on the photo ~



Tomorrow is the big day at the Bakersfield Museum of Art, garden area, between the hours of 3 p.m. and 7 p.m.

My heart is my altar

Back in the day when I could still run, a running friend of mine told me one fine morning, "My heart is my altar." She said that she carries it with her everywhere she goes. I thought of that phrase as I was making one of the mini altars that will go on the larger altar for Dia de los Muertos. Here's the completed mini altar for our dear friend, Candace Goldwater.





There aren't too many days that go by that I don't think of Candace. Everytime I pick of a pair of knitting needles, I think of Candace's skill at this art, and her patient tutoring of the novice knitters who had the privilege to "sit and knit" with her.

Candace had a great sense of humor and an eclectic spirituality. I'm sure she will laugh heartily wherever her spirit resides when she sees the yarn on those little toothpicks I turned into knitting needles. And, she would have really laughed if she caught a look at this ~



Not one of our better moments, paper-flower-wise, but I'll bet Candace would tape it to her refrigerator door to show off our efforts.

Getting there ...

Patty's working hard on her part of the project. Here she is at her studio. Intense, isn't she!



Patty completed two of the skulls she was working on and is putting the final touches to another one, plus a mask.



The sequined skull was labor-intensive, but worth the effort. Nice job, Patty!

Here is most of what we have completed. The yellow one on the bottom right was made by Savanah. I thought it was pretty groovy. I'm not sure if you can tell, but she put a spider web in the eye on the right.



Peace, sisters!

Work, work, work

Here's Patty hard at work on one of several skulls she readying for the Dia de los Muertos altar ~



One skull is covered in hundreds of seed beads, with flowers in the eye sockets. As you can see, Patty is painstakingly placing sequins on the other skull. Can't wait to see the finished project.

Here's another skeleton mask and skull of Patty's ~





The bottom skull is covered in obits of Patty's dad that "for some strange reason" she saved over the years. Maybe that strange reason was to decorate an altar. Mmmmmmm, the mysteries never cease.

Finally, here's a photo at my attempt to make a skeleton for my sweet dog, Rusty, who passed away about four years ago. I still miss him. He cocked his head just this way when we talked to him ~

Get along little doggies

Karen spent part of yesterday experimenting with making clay esqueletos del perros -- dog skeletons. I think they're cute!



I plan to work on some of clay skeletons myself this week. It should be interesting!

Friends and Family

The Bakersfield Museum of Art is offering families the chance to put up altars in their lovely garden on November 1st to celebrate Dia de Los Muertos. Several friends and family members decided to get together and put up a large altar in honor of our loved ones who have passed.

We have scurried about researching and gathering materials. Many of us are the artsy/crafty types with a strong eclectic spiritual bent, so this project is right up our alley! In the true spirit of Dia de Los Muertos, we are approaching this project with lots of fun, laughter, and remembrance.

Hopefully, this will not be just a one shot deal. Hopefully, we will gather for years to come to pay tribute on the Day of the Dead to our loved ones who have passed on. I'll be posting a few blog entries with photos and updates on our progress.

Here are a few of the skulls we've been working on today ~