The Three Spinsters (1 of 3) – Acrylic on canvas – 48″ x 24″
The Three Spinsters (2 of 3) – Acrylic on canvas – 48″ x 24″
The Three Spinsters (3 of 3) – Acrylic on canvas – 48″ x 24″
Artist Statement
When I was growing up, both my parents worked for the local undertakers.
Death was a regular topic of dinner table conversation, not in any theological or philosophical sense, but it would inevitably come up while discussing the events of the day. I loved hearing my father recount how he had had to maneuver a 300lb rotting corpse down 3 flights of stairs, or my mother retelling someone’s grief. For a while, I considered following in their footsteps. Maybe this goes part of the way to explaining my fascination with anything macabre.
I have collected a number of unusual objects while traveling (I once had to get a dead fox through customs) and on a trip to Mexico, the Catrina dolls really captured my eye and my imagination. I loved the bright, vibrant colors of the costumes and the opulence of the decoration contrasted against the stark white of the bones and the black, hollow eyes.
As an artist, I was excited not to be limited by a particular color pallet and inspired to be able to let my imagination run free when it came to embellishment, allowing me to paint a variety of textures and pick out interesting details.
The main focus of the paintings are the figures themselves. In Mexican culture, the Día de Los Muertos festival is celebrated November 1st to honor the souls of the dead. Mexican artist José Posada in 1910 created a print that served as inspiration for the first catrina, and now the figures are used as decoration and as a reminder that death comes for everyone in the end.
As my work on the series progressed, it became less about painting the dolls and more of an intention for the forms to appear is if they are hosting a feminine inner personality or anima.
I have designed the backgrounds to be simple and stylized to elicit a dream-like atmosphere.
All of the paintings are acrylic on canvas.
The Reunion (1 of 3) – Acrylic on canvas – 48″ x 24″
The Reunion (2 of 3) – Acrylic on canvas – 48″ x 24″
The Reunion (3 of 3) – Acrylic on canvas – 48″ x 24″
The entire series will be available to view or purchase through October 2016 at Museum Quality Framing in Magnolia.
View the full gallery here.