Community Engagement + Art Project: Dia de los Muertos skull

For my art project, I collected pieces of trash from the Peck Road Water Conservation Clean Up that I participated in. From the many items of trash collected, the most interesting ones I came across were a canine skull and turtle shell. The one that I decided to make into a form of art is the canine skull. I painted over the skull and make it into a  Dia de Los Muertos skull, which means “The Day of the Dead”. The reason I came up with this is because this day is very special and big celebration that happens every year which is meant to honor the day of the dead. My message is to honor the canine who has died because it’s very sad to see this and may have suffered a horrible death. It is sad to see the skull of this beloved canine. Although the decaying of bones is beneficial to the Earth, it should not have been by big areas of trash. By seeing all the pieces of trash that were by the water was very unpleasant to see and made me really want to fix this issue that is going on in the world

with pollution. It really does affect not just us but also innocent animals.

            I wanted and planned to make this skull come to life and that is the purpose I plan to intend so that it can look beautiful again. The effect I hope to get on the audience is to bring out the life in this once beautiful creature and how animals are so beautiful to keep in this world. Who knows how long this skull has been down there where we did the clean up, day after day. I would like to paint it the way that the make up is done on Dia de Los Muertos and hope to make it look spectacular. My purpose is to make this canine skull have another chance and that is why I chose this specific day which is honoring the dead.