Highlight Reel
Sponsor of the 13th Annual LA Music Awards
My artwork, with it’s imagery of Diablos and Calaveras (devils and skulls) is something either people love or hate. I’ve never met anyone that falls in between. I do abstract work as well, but I love the Dia de los Muertos imagery and idea behind the holiday.
I know that according to the calendar it comes but once a year, but for me it is a year-long celebration. Just as there are people who give gifts on a just because basis, not worrying whether it is a birthday, xmas or anniversary, I celebrate the Day of the Dead pretty much every day. I don’t think that a day goes by that I don’t think of someone who made an impact on my life and is now, at least physically dead. Relatives, friends, icons, pets. I think about them all, from Karen Carpenter to my grandmother, from Phantom, a cat we found and tried to save but didn’t make it, to Snowflake, a family dog that we were all sure would outlive the family-out of spite if nothing else, to Kelly, a dear friend who died of an AIDS related illness many years ago.
These beings, any many more, are always haunting my thoughts (I mean that in a good way) and sometimes I find myself talking out loud to them, or laughing at something they did or said years ago. I find that sometimes I am saddened by the loss of their physical presence, but I am always glad for the time, brief as it may have been, that I spent with my dear family and friends, and my relationship with them is as real to me as any relationship with those breathing beings who are also celebrated parts of my life.
-Ladislao Loera