Honoring life, playing with death, following the long tradition.
Ni Una Más
Acrylic on canvas, 30x40in, 2001. From series Current Events.
La Muerte (death) is the most important character in the Mexican culture. Loved ones who have past away are missed throughout the year, but during November first and second people are visited and history is remembered. It is a treat to share two days with the past. So many explanations of life come from death and its relation to it. In order to better understand life, I paint about death as it fills different pieces of daily activities, beliefs, and dreams.
Death is understood according to the cultural knowledge of the time. Yet people hold a personal relationship with death that develops throughout life. Death is never the same, though it is always there with us, as if waiting to ask for an intimate dance. I explore the multi-phasetic personality of La Muerte as it dances through my life.
Mictlantecuhtli y yo
Acrylic on canvas, 11x14in, 1997.
Mictlantecuhtli is the god of death in the Aztec culture. This god is born with us and shares our life until the moment we become part of his. He is like a shadow, as half of who we are, as an extension of our senses. No use in fighting and ignoring the unknown in our selves. It is the fear of the deep self that limits the realization of that which is tangible: life.
(The texts were made for the Dia de los Muertos exhibition at Oak Hill School, Eugene (OR), in 1997).
Trilce Navarrete 