Alegría Amorosa (2000/2013)
This is one of my favorite painted skulls so far….
The festive spirit of Dia de los Muertos is translated within this image into an American Pagan idiom, resonating with an essential paradox: as death dwells in the midst of life, so does life spring from the heart of death.
Beltane, the peak of spring opening into summer, dwells in the heart of Samhain, the festival of death at the end of the year. And round the wheel does turn.
To decorate the bones, which are after all the armature of living animals, becomes another way of saying, here is life, here is life….