i think my mexican background has had a lot to do with my fascination and love of ghosts, we even have a day celebrating ghosts and death. ghosts are everywhere in mexican culture, to haunt, to torture, but also, to bring messages of love, peace and justice to people still on earth. i grew up around dia de los muertos altars, glittery paper-mache skeletons, skulls made out of sugar and everyone i knew had a real ghost story. a really real and super terrifying one, and all the adults would nod after the story was over, backing it up. ghosts were very real when i was a kid.
i also very much love being a little scared. my brothers and i are huge horror movie fans, and growing up would watch every terrible ghost show or movie we could find, go to haunted house mazes as teenagers, regularly try to contact the ghost we believed was in the room we all shared, walk in the cemetery near our childhood home, and sneak up on each other in the dark. it’s safe to say we loved scaring the shit out of ourselves. as i got older, and people we knew or loved started to die, i started having to force myself to think about why the thought of ghosts make me feel a little scared and a little thrilled. mortality (of life, of freedom, friendships, etc.) is a very tragic, mysterious, and complicated thing for most of us. being born and dying are the most common things we could possibly do, but they are also so special because they are the most intense things that happen to us, and the births and deaths of those we are close to become significant points in between. that’s a lot of energy we have, and i wonder where it goes and what it becomes. i want to believe that’s not just lost once our bodies go. my extended family would probably tell me to go back to church at this point for proper answers, but after many childhood-teenage years of bible study, church, and consideration, have decided that i do not find their explanations adequate at this point in time.
i guess i believe in ghosts because they feel like a part of who i am at this point. they and thoughts of them have always been present in my life. in true mexican fashion, ghosts are my playful and eerie reminder of the inevitable.
oooh! thunder and lightning now two evenings in a row!
moon home/dream home.
(Source: chamomilehoneypie)
graham bought me a beautiful double sided little print. i pinned it to the wall star-side-up, but i like that there is printed word on the opposite side. now we have a little secret between us and the wall.
i’ve not been doing so hot this week, but i’m feeling better now. also, thank you thank you to the people who bought things after april 25th for being so patient (and aware of my current shop info) for your packages, they have gone out and will be with you soon. it’s been a crazy month!
my email inbox is very big, i have a little stack of commission/”to do” paintings, plus i got to put up our bookshelves and figure out tonight’s meal, so i should go get on that now.
(Source: finelittleday, via windwrinkle)
i have a soft spot for all my botched and out of focus 35mm photos.
Cécile Daladier
happy mother’s day to my beautiful mom!
a quick doodle of our new room with an imaginary snake.
i am very very very afraid of snakes, but i also think they are very beautiful (especially the california king snake) and am trying to draw and paint them more often.
