Posted on 11/02/2022 5:50:54 PM PDT by nickcarraway
Packed with exposed wooden pallets, art easels and Mexican skeleton dolls, Palo Alto resident and artist Virginia Gutiérrez Porter's garage art studio will soon be transformed into a complete, immersive altar for Día de Muertos, the Mexican holiday honoring lost loved ones.
Palo Alto resident Virginia Gutiérrez Porter created a detailed portrait of a calaca, a traditional depiction of a skeleton, for her Day of the Dead altar at her home. Courtesy Virginia Gutiérrez Porter. Palo Alto resident Virginia Gutiérrez Porter created a detailed portrait of a calaca, a traditional depiction of a skeleton, for her Day of the Dead altar at her home. Courtesy Virginia Gutiérrez Porter. Palo Alto resident Virginia Gutiérrez Porter created a detailed portrait of a calaca, a traditional depiction of a skeleton, for her Day of the Dead altar at her home. Courtesy Virginia Gutiérrez Porter.
For the past two years, Gutierrez Porter, who teaches art at Palo Verde and Barron Park elementary schools, has decorated her garage with flower-filled cans, copious artificial candles and other ornaments directly from Mexican markets. A traditionally designed "carpet" constructed with sawdust and a three-tier altar displaying framed photographs of deceased family and friends has acted as the art installation's centerpieces. The result is an awe-inspiring, spiritual space, warm and quiet in memory of the departed. This year's altar will be open to the public from Oct. 30 to Nov. 2.
To Gutiérrez Porter, the altar is not only an exhibition of Mexican culture, but a deeply personal project born out of pandemic-produced loneliness. A graphic designer turned homemaker, she craved a return to her art as well as a way to physically connect with her particularly close-knit Triple El neighborhood.
In 2020, she created her first altar from scratch and visitors routinely came to look and chat.
"The pandemic was long, and it was lonely. It was too quiet, and I felt this shifting happening deep inside of me," Gutiérrez Porter said. "I felt I needed to be hands-on, so I started working in my garage with the door open. Talking to people walking past and making everyday runs to the grocery store became my contact."
In the midst of the widespread death and grief that came with the pandemic, she wanted to share the distinctly Mexican perspective on mourning. According to Gutiérrez Porter, the holiday is less a practice of sorrowful grieving and more a celebration of life.
"The beauty of this Mexican tradition is that it's a recognition that those memories of your loved ones are alive. They're going to be there, forever, " she said. "It's a way to bring them back, be grateful, celebrate their lives and stay with the part that made you a better person just because of them having been in your life."
While Gutiérrez Porter is a self-proclaimed perfectionist who prefers to design her altar by herself, she elicited much-appreciated help from willing neighbors and friends. She received 20 wooden pallets from The Market at Edgewood and empty cans and bottles of wine from Italian restaurant Terún as well as a few friends' helping hands.
To give back to a community she felt has given so much to her, she has been working meticulously to create an intimate, impactful space that also does justice to her roots. In year's past, she has created a detailed portrait of a calaca, a traditional depiction of a skeleton, with sawdust and sand infused with powdered pigment. The large floor art exhibited strong, bold black lines and a unique and fragile texture.
"I make the carpet from scratch, and sometimes people ask if they can touch it, and I say no, no, no! " she said. "The dust is as fragile as life. So when the altar is over after Nov. 2, I clean it all away. It symbolizes that it's all just a moment in time."
The candles and surrounding decorations help create an enveloping, meaningful space that visitors have responded positively to, she said.
"It's been moving for a lot of people. The lighting is very warm, and just the tradition itself brings you to a place of contemplation, " she said. "So you enter my garage door, which is transformed 100%, and it makes you a little bit quiet and very respectful when you see the pictures at the altar."
Last year, a member of the Mexican Consulate in San Jose also visited Gutiérrez Porter's piece, and invited her to build an altar at the embassy. With help from sponsors like Milagros de Mexico, a Mexican pharmacy, and Fantasías Miguel, a Mexican arts and craft store, Gutiérrez Porter created a small 8-foot by 8-foot altar at the consulate. While she's honored to share the piece with a wider audience, she says that the altar in her home is more significant to her.
"The altar in my garage feels really intimate. That one talks to me, that one makes me cry, " she said. "I have this engine inside of me moved by my ancestors when it's in my house."
Like many others, the pandemic gave Gutiérrez Porter a unique opportunity to realign her artistic passions with her cultural roots and own personal evolution. It prompted her to take a step back and feel gratitude for her family, community, her life — the good and the bad.
"The altar is moving because it's really honest. It's very authentic. It's very (me)," she said. "It took a long time for me to feel at peace with myself, but it feels like 'Virginia' is back in every aspect, the altar, the paintings, the teaching. That's 100% unapologetically myself. Finally, I'm back. I feel like myself again."
Gutiérrez Porter's Day of the Dead altar is open to the community at 985 El Cajon Way, Palo Alto, on Nov. 2, from 6:30-9 p.m.
Email Alicia Mies at aliciamies@gmail.com.
Nothing says “grateful” like skeletons and skulls.
Actually thats why we see so many brides wearing dresses full of skeletons and skulls.
Somebody call the Hispanic Caucus, this had “cultural appropriation “ written all over it!
/s
Ping
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