One of the finished pieces.

After a long hot spell, we have finally gotten some rain. Living in the high desert really makes one appreciate any kind of moisture, realizing the difference a few rain showers can make. The landscape is looking lush and green, and many wild flowers are blooming, some of which I have not seen for a few years. But here they are, introducing spots of color into the landscape. The rains have cooled temperatures, and this morning there even was a layer of fog over the countryside, and the air had a faint smell of autumn in the air. Knowing this article will appear in the fall, my thoughts go on fast forward, past the Indian Market and the Spanish Market in Santa Fe to some of the more traditional fall events.

Most of you are maybe thinking of Labor Day, Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Veterans Day or Thanksgiving, but I want to share a quite different event with you. One special day celebrated here in New Mexico may not be known in other parts of the country, or at least not very well. So let me share a little information about this celebration, which is called “Dia de Los Muertos”. Now it may seem a bit macabre to some to be talking about a day concerning the dead but I assure you there is nothing dark and somber about it, and no, I have not gone off the deep end either.

Most everyone knows about Halloween and that has certainly been turned into a colorful, kind of fun celebration. Churches celebrate All Souls and All Saints Days, which are a little more subdued. Leave it to the Spanish and South American countries to make a day of remembrance into a colorful event which also incorporates a lot of art/craft work. I want to show you some pieces that Damian Romero, our graphic artist, has been working on, but maybe I will give you a bit more background on this celebration.

The Day of the Dead tradition goes back to the Aztecs and has been celebrated for at least 2,000 years. In pre-Hispanic times, it was common to keep skulls as trophies and display them during rituals to symbolize death and rebirth. The festivities were dedicated to the god known as the “Lady of the Dead”, corresponding to the modern Catrina. On November 1st one honors children who have passed away, also known as “Dia de los Inocentes” (Day of the Innocents) or “Dia de los Angelitos” (Day of the Little Angels), and on November 2nd, adults on “Dia de los Muertos” (Day of the Dead).

People visit the cemeteries to communicate with the souls of the departed and often have picnics there, building personal altars and shrines with photos and memorabilia of the departed. Some bring offerings for the dead, singing and telling stories about the departed. This often turns humorous in telling funny stories and others reciting poems specially written for the dead. Some of these short poems are called “Calaveras” (Skulls) because they are mocking epitaphs. The skull has become a prevalent symbol for this celebration and is often represented as masks called “calacas”. Sugar and chocolate skulls are given as gifts along with various other special foods. There are dances with costumes and masks, and candles are lit everywhere. Much folk art is created for these special celebrations to honor the spirits of the departed, which also serve as a reminder to the living to live life to its fullest.

But I do not want to get into all details of this special day but wanted to zero in on the art of creating elaborate designs with the skull motif. Our graphic artist, Damian Romero, who is obviously of Hispanic descent, began creating some skull images for the upcoming celebration of the “Dia de los Muertos” here in New Mexico. Since he is learning to blast, we decided to work through the project together.

Damian actually began with pencil drawings of his designs, which he then scanned to import the images into the computer. Next, he had to clean up the artwork in Adobe Illustrator. Since the skull designs are symmetrical, he only needed to work on one half of the design and then could “mirror” the design to create the second half. After that, we printed the image on paper first to study the overall line quality of the individual designs, because we intended to create photo-resist stencils from the designs. Checking the line quality would tell us if we could create stencils in the thicker photo resist for carving like a 5 mil, or if we would have to stay with the standard thickness of a 3 mil due to the fine detail.

We settled for the 3 mil in this case and created the stencils with UltraPro 3 mil resist. This still allowed us to blast a good amount of depth without losing the fine details and without going into a multi-stage blasted process. The images look very striking just being blasted into the crystal clear glass, but Damian wanted to introduce color into the design to create some additional areas of interest. We discussed various possibilities, ranging from attaching glass jewels to some of the blasted areas which look like jewelry-like embellishments to painting. Painting was the final choice.

Damian is applying stencils. Painting some details.

Most of the design elements are so small that airbrushing was quickly dismissed by us, and we started to play with various paints that could be purchased from a hobby store. After testing several paints, Damian settled for a Delta brand paint that was transparent as desired but also had a rich color without looking washed out. He also found a particular version of these paints that have a slight iridescent character without looking too gaudy. The painting itself became another process he had to experiment with to test how to apply the paint. How much would be needed to have even color saturation of the shape without putting so much on that the paint would puddle, creating a greater saturation at the center (bottom) of the shape and leaving a lighter ring around the sides?

Since the areas he wanted to paint were so very small, he was going to brush paint them. He first tried leaving the resist on and then he tried one sample by removing the resist first and then painting. Ultimately he decided to paint without the resist in place because he could see better that way if he had painted the side walls of the slightly deeper blasted small areas. The color of the resist itself was also affecting his ability to see the true color he was applying by casting its purple color into the areas to be painted. The bigger problem was to keep his hand steady to be able to hit the target of those small shapes. When some of the paint got onto the flat clear glass, we took a razor blade to remove it.

Damian found out firsthand that it takes quite a while to carefully paint those small areas but also was very pleased with the outcome. Setting the cleaned, finished piece into a lighted base, we thought that the light really enhanced the quality of the look of the piece by showing the depth of some of the areas and, of course, really making the painted small areas more pronounced. The colors really glow with the illumination and add a special touch to the pieces. I think Damian is very happy with his projects, and he has every right to be; I think he did a good job working through this project, and I am looking forward to future designs he creates.
©Ruth L Dobbins 2010