Working away on a bunch of images with skulls and flowers. On a roll. A very florid, flourishy look to these illos. The image (above) is from Shebbear (Devon, England) and is the spark for this new series of pictures. The ink keeps flowing--and I find that these images are contained decorative pieces that look to the work of the Mexican graphic/ comic artist, Jose Guadalupe Posada. Posada's work is far edgier and far more socio-political than the stuff that is flowing off my pen. But I do love his pen work, his thicks and thins, the whimsy his work embraces. The holy card with the wack typography makes me laugh.
A little on Posada:
José Guadalupe Posada was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico in 1851. He studied lihography in Trinidad Pedroso's Workshop of Popular Graphics, and became a contributor to the magazine El Jicote in 1871. He soon developed his famous sarcastic style, and it is possible that he was forced to move to Léon, Guanjato, where he taught lithography at a high school. In 1888, he moved to Mexico City, where his career as an illustrator really took off. He contributed his political drawings to numerous newspapers and magazines. He was especially known for his satires of the regime of dictator Porfirio Díaz, but he also created the famous "calaveras", the skeletons. Drawing on the Mexican cultural myth of the celebration of death, he depicted several stereotypes as skeletons, giving his work a sarcastic, joking touch.
Etching of St. Juan Diego by Jose Guadalupe Posada.
A calavera, which means "skull" in Spanish, is a type of traditional Latin American ornament or treat used on the Dia de Los Muertos ("Day of the Dead"). They are primarily made of sugar and are shaped in the image of skulls–usually with colorful designs. Many families have their own traditions in the calaveras. For example, in Mexican and Mexican American families it is traditional for each member of the family to have a sugar calavera with their name in it.
As I said before, no shortage of inspiration. To think it comes out of the kitchen too!