Collective Dia de Muertos Show in Ajijic

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These are the pieces I’ll be showing at Jesus Lopez Vega’s “Dia de Muertos” Group Show at his studio gallery, Rio Zula #7 in Ajijic from 4-7 PM on November 2.  (Rio Zula is the street one block west of Yves Restaurant and the street Casa Linda is on.)

Davy Jones Locker: Davy Jones’ Locker is a metaphor for the bottom of the sea: the state of death among drowned sailors and shipwrecks. It is used as a euphemism for drowning. Silver coins spilling from a pirate chest seem to be doing these victims of shipwreck at sea no good at all. I collected all of the shells and sand used in this piece from various beaches in Mexico.

 

Click on photos to enlarge size and read captions.

Since it looks like the captions are cut off in the enlarged versions of the photos, here is the complete description of the pieces:

Davey Jones’ Locker
Davy Jones’ Locker is a metaphor for the bottom
of the sea: the state of death among drowned sailors
and shipwrecks. It is used as a euphemism
for drowning. Silver coins spilling from a pirate chest
seem to be doing these victims of shipwreck
at sea no good at all. Media includes sand and shells
collected from various Mexican beaches by the artist.

Day of the Dead in Mexico
Offerings to the dearly departed include my
miniaturized version of a real book:
Noche de Muertos Muestrario Poetico en Michoacan,
 a volume of Day of the Dead poems.

 Waiting for the day of the Dead
Father and Child skeletons wait
patiently for Dia de Muertos and
their yearly portion of “dead bread.”

 Altar
This skeleton has already consumed
one loaf of dead bread and is
ready for his next one.

These are the artists in the show:

Poster art is by Antonio Lopez Vega.

Please join us there for art, music, refreshments and to meet the artists!

The More the Scarier

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The More the Scarier

When a single apparition tried to haunt the candy store,
they just admired his costume and gave him one treat more
than all the trick or treaters who’d appeared before his visit.
I wonder if his timing isn’t very good or is it?

When he planned his visit, he was counting on horrific,
but when the owner simply said his costume was terrific,
his esteem somehow defrayed his disappointment that
the only creature that he seemed to scare was just the cat.

He returned to the graveyard and stirred his sleeping mate,
insisting on their return—this time as double date.
And their double-haunting in fact turned out so well,
 next year they’re showing up with all the denizens of hell!!!!

Prompt words today are apparition, costume, horrific, esteem and mate. Image by Kevin Escate on Unsplash.

FOTD Oct 30, 2021

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For Cee’s FOTD

Degrees of Possession

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Degrees of Possession

When a ghost is newly dead and lacking in his knowledge,
is it perhaps required of him to go to haunting college?
Does he become a boogeyman, thereby saving face
only when he’s studied hard and learned to glide with grace
up the stairs and down the stairs and way down to the basement,
polishing his scary moves and practicing debasement?
Will he then earn the esteem of every other ghoul
who passed his apprenticeship at apparition school?

Prompt words for the day are haunting, college, boogeyman, esteem and grace.

Yes, that’s me scaring my sis Patti way back when I was trying to earn my spook degree. If you can think of a better name for this poem, please suggest it. This was as good as I could do.

Gazania, FOTD Oct 29, 2021

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For Cee’s FOTD Oct 29, 2021

Night Sky Over Lake Chapala, Oct 28, 2021

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Click on photos to enlarge.

Crown of Thorns: FOTD Oct 28, 2021

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For Cee’s FOTD

Tryst

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Tryst

The smell of his aftershave, his looks and wit,
the chemistry, passion, charisma and fit
of her putative lover had gained such renown
that his legend was spoken all over the town.

Through her bedroom window he climbed after dark
as she stilled her dad’s dogs–their bite and their bark.
With scraps of her dinner she lured them away
as her lover sneaked into the bedroom where they

would make love to the music that swelled on the breeze
of her imagination, there on her knees
playing out that wild scene in her hopes and her dreams,
through want of reality, stretched to extremes.

No passion, no music, no lover’s embrace,
her only caresses, the moon on her face
as it slowly rises, extending its beams,
and creeps through the window to enter her dreams.

Prompts today are the bedroom window, music, wit, putative and smell.

Preparations for Day of the Dead, Oct 27, 2021

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These are the vicious winged insects that have infested the ground and air next to my adopted graves.
Plants cleared and time for the broom and mop and bucket to come out
This is the abandoned plot I adopted 5 years ago.
Ajijic Tengo, a local restaurant gets into the spirit of DOD.

Click on photos to enlarge and read captions.

There doesn’t seem to be the frenzy of activity in the Pantheons (graveyards) that there is usually at this time. Workers are clearing away the mud from the slides and some of the rubble. Oscar cut the tall weeds away from my adopted graves but could not clear the small plot next to it as it is filled with huge black and orange  winged wasps or bees, a picture of which I tried to capture in a photo here, but they are so fast that I wasn’t too successful. On the 28th, I’ll take  broom, mop and bucket and clean off the graves. My friend Leslie and a number of friends want to come help make offerings on October 31 to avoid the rush on Nov. 1 and 2.  For earlier posts about these graves go HERE and HERE. To see how the graves looked before Oscar and Yolanda cleared them away, go HERE.

Why this compulsion regarding DOD? Because I have lived in Mexico for 20 years and that compulsion is infectious.What better way to remember one’s departed loved ones than to make a celebration of it?

New Gal on the Block: FOTD Oct 27, 2021

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I’ve

I’ve already forgotten the name of this newest plant in my garden, but it keeps on producing beautiful blooms. No time to look it up now, but I’ll identify it when I get home this afternoon.