The calavera is the laughing figure of the Day of the Dead who turns the world upside down and, for many, at least for a moment, rights it.*
*Days of Death, Days of Life by Kristin Norget
Figures in papier-mâché, carved wood, ceramic and metal. Presented in order of size from small to life-size and very large.
Square pendant 6.35 cm.
Calaveras baking Pan de Muertos, miniature inside a walnut, 6.9 cm on width.
Miniature altar 7cm in height. Image left with closed doors
Ceramic skull candle holder, 14 cm height with candle
These little figures are made to decorate altars and as toys for children. A Day of the Dead figure in a boat filled with corn, pan de muertos and a turkey.
Ceramic and wire
Ceramic and wire turkey with skull head. 13.97 cm square.
Papier-mâché
Oaxaca is the state that produces the finest tinwork in Mexico. Tin’s shiny surface has an appearance similar to silver which to a great extent must have accounted for its appeal. As these and other decorative objects were intended to be given a significant place in homes or churches, it seems likely that tinplate was regarded as a poor man’s silver.*
*The Crafts of Mexico, edited by Margarita de Orellana and Alberto Ruy-Sanchez
Tinplate with paint, 25cm.
Tin used as ex-voto
Paintings of miracles: These very special documents are generally painted on ten-cent metal, usually tin.
So, in Mexico nowadays the word miracle means the happening, and also the small painting which records it, in the shrine of the Christ, a saint, or madonna with whom the event is associated. You may say, “I saw a little miracle”, and mean that you saw an automobile miss a child which it was destined to kill, or that you were very ill with tuberculosis or a boil, and were cured; or that in the church in which you prayed, of the long horizontal and vertical rows of paintings describing such boons, one struck your fancy. “Saw” means that you passed through the moment. You lived whichever miracle you are recalling.*
*Idols Behind Altars by Anita Brenner, 1929
A Man Revived After Being Struck By Lightning, 1882 from the book Mexico, Splendors of Thirty Centuries, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Oil on metal 18X13 cm.
Palm leaf ornaments representing the sun and stars to honor the saints and returning souls.
papel picado- large
papel picado - small
Ceramic Catrina figure 36.83 cm in height.
Ballerina, painted plaster with wire armature.. Approx. 122 cm in height.
Wedding party with life-size figures.
Female figure in painted sheet metal, life-size.
Large scale La Calavera Catrina in museum courtyard.
