Dia de los Muertos Artist
The first toys I can remember were a plastic skeleton and winged devil, gifts from my grandmother. Other kids has GI Joes and Batman action figures but I was never envious of them. My toys allowed my imagination to stretch it’s boundaries and make friends with the very things that give other children nightmares.
Toys like these are often given to children in Mexico so their first encounter with death isn’t a fearful one. It helps to teach them that though we are always in the presence of death, life is for the living, and it is to be lived…until the time comes for us to no longer do so.
If I find it interesting I will paint it. Sometimes the piece inspires the art, other times I have the idea and all I need is the canvas. While I do canvas work I find that I really enjoy creating functional art.
Traditional Dia De Los Muertos symbols of skulls, crucifixes and devils are painted with bright colors in creative combinations. These non-traditional works of art give us insight into the mind of the artist, Ladislao Loera.
It seems to me that a lot of people treat death as if it is curable. When, in reality, death isn’t a disease, it is a matter of course. It’s a door we will all step through and making our peace with it will make our time here more precious.
Ladi remembers his mother telling him about going to the cemetery with her brother and grandmother. The kids would play catch while their grandmother set up a picnic at the gravesite, and all the while other families were doing the same.
My father never really participated in the Dia de los Muertos traditions. In the small town where he was born, this was frowned upon, especially if you wanted to fit in, as well as any brown person could, with the rest of the town. There were those that did celebrate but the rest of the town thought they were backwards, ignorant or worse.
I don’t think of death with the same finality that most people do. I believe we go on and I believe that we really do keep the ones we love with us, so while I miss their physical presence that hasn’t stopped me from talking to them from time to time.
