The Day of the Dead — Faces by Christopher Agostino  10/30/2014 – updated 2015  #transformationsny

My introduction to this Mexican fusion of death and beauty came via the mummies of Guanajuato when I was there as a student in the 80s. In 2001 I had the opportunity to return to Guanajuato as part of the Festival International Cervantino, painting faces in the street as one of a number of international performance artists. A few days after the festival ended, just before I had to leave, the center of the town was filled with stalls of the artisans creating items for the coming Dia De los Muertos. I bought this mask, and felt really great when the woman who sold it recognized me as a fellow artist for the facepainting I’d done in those plazas the week before.

I approach the Day of the Dead as a celebration of the presence of death within life, and the continuation of life within death through the love we retain for those who have passed.  I want to retain stark images of death in the faces I paint, and for inspiration I look less to the current sugar skull style and more to traditional imagery such as Posada’s La Catrina and Mexican skeleton figurines.

Most of these photographs are from Dia De Los Metros events at the Hudson River Museum in 2014 and 2015.  Learn about all we do at: agostinoarts.com

learn about all we do at: agostinoarts.com

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• Halloween 2013 — Face Painting Gallery #zombieattack
• #ZombieAttack — Halloween Gallery
• #ZombieAttack — Halloween Gallery 2: Vampires, Demons, Aliens and Creepy Characters
• Japanese Demons and Kabuki Spooky
• Eye of the Demon
• Dia De Los Muertos – Calpulli Mexican Dance Company (thestorybehindthefaces.com)

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