La-K-La-K

The looming figure of “La calavera catrina” (the elegant skeleton) or “La calaca” (the skeleton) is an image associated with Mexican commemorations of the Day of the Dead. The festival celebrates the departed and satirizes the living. The large skull has been reduced to two staring eyes under a characteristic hat of feathers and flowers. A smaller skeletal figure wearing Mickey Mouse ears accompanies her. The sense of dramatic contrast is heightened by the intensity of charcoal and pastel layered and strewn across the broad expanse of paper.