KGB Gallery presents:

El Velorio

Day of the Dead Group Art show featuring 100+ local artists

So blessed and proud to be part of this HUGE art show on October 28th, 2011. Almost 700+ people have RSVPed. Please come out (decked out in Day of the Dead makeup if you wish) to honor our ancestors and help send 15 of my artists friends to El Buen Pastor, a community center in Mexico dedicated in helping women and children who are victims of domestic violence.

My friends have been fundraising for the El Buen Pastor Mural Project , a mission they started earlier this year, by hosting shows and vending their work. They started this projects grassroots and the community have been responsive, offsetting the travel expenses, lodging, food and art supplies for the group to start and finish this mural.

I'm super proud to be able to help them out. Here was the initial sketch of the painting:

this is the black and white filter of just the girl:

and this is a detail of the final painting:

There should be a book printed that will include the majority of the artists involved in the art show. If you can't afford original art, you can certainly take a book home with you!

You are probably wondering why I do so much work on a holiday recognized in a country outside of my own. Living in Los Angeles, I am surrounded by so many cultures, backgrounds and ethnicities that unless you are a closed-minded hermit, you can't help but be influenced and shaped by such beautiful diversity.

The idea of respecting and remembering our ancestors are tied by our indigenous roots. It is the Western culture that introduced this concept as "evil" andteaches us to be afraid of the afterlife and forget about those who came before us. My country has a similar holiday called All Souls/Saints Day in which we honor the saints as well as our ancestors so it is only natural for me to do this piece with the loving memory of my grandparents, uncles, aunts and friends who have "returned home"

Reborn in Paradise:

Gramma and Grampa E, Gramma and Grampa A, Uncle Mauricio, Uncle Rudy, E. Fructuoso, Bryan Paz, Auntie Lita, Uncle Henry, Peter, Del Reisman, Kyle, Auntie Lupe, Kid, Grampa Tony...