Still life representing the morning after a day of the dead festival night. The devil mask in the image, is one of the Mexican folk art masks I have collected over the years, my first. It is hand carved, over 75 years old, and was worn by a medicine man for many years during Day of the Dead festivals. There is a play between death and rebirth in Mexican and South American cultures, which is only strengthened by the ties to thanksgiving to the saints and past family members brought about through Catholicism. I have tried to capture this feeling of death and mourning with white lace cloth, the scariness of afterlife with the devil, the thanksgiving, reverence, and purification with the holy water bottle and the bible, the play and dressing the part of death in the garter and draped sock, and the rebirth from death and fermentation in the shadow on the wall (which was coincidentally the exact shadow cast after setting up the still life with no additional help on my part) and the redrum bottle of alcohol.
This painting was completed with professional grade acrylic paints on watercolor paper which was then heavily glossed with varnish, and is currently available for purchase.
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