How a bunch of beautiful skeletons solved one of my biggest problems. (Day of the Dead Art)

We are our identity, a collection of experiences and choices. As a person, that picture of me is quite vividly painted: I am passionate, mischievous, amusing, helpful, forward, adventurous, and always learning new stuff. If you meet me, you'll feel like you know me well, within 5 minutes (oh yeah- and I'm a story teller, so... you'll spend the next 5 hours hearing tales of adventure, and bad jokes). 

A business also has an identity (look at the difference between Microsoft and Apple), as does a product (Humvee Hummer vs Ferrari 488 Pista vs a Kia Soul), so what about my art? What is its identity?  What am I saying with it?  

I had been (and still am) creating a new work of art every single day for more than 2,500 days, and that question had been bugging me many times. The solution, like so many things in this modern world, came from a social media post.

A local bar was looking for an artist to do a mural, and a friend tagged me. I was giddy, as I've wanted to do a mural in a place that gets many visitors for quite a while. I applied, and got called back. My smile was large.

Now, I'm going to ruin the surprise ending:  I did not get to paint the mural, as I had a trip planned, and would not be able to do the mural before the bar opened for business. However, the application process changed my life.

When I met the lady in charge, she told me that the theme was day of the dead (Dia De Los Muertos). I was excited because I am practically an expert on this Mexican holiday. That's right, I have seen both Book Of Life AND Coco!  Ok... that was the extent of my knowledge... but creating art gives me a reason to learn about things.

The Day of The Dead is about family and celebration. You honor your ancestors, you remember them, you give tribute to them. There is a lot of food and music involved. Entire families go to the cemetery and leave food out for the spirits of their ancestors to enjoy. You even see many families bring Mariachi bands to the graveyard. 

I began creating Dia De Los Muertos art. The result is the images that you saw at the start of this post. But the results you don't see are what happened next. People on Facebook were losing their shit over these images.  I tried to figure out what it was about them, and I figured it out (hence the title for this post).

Normally I'll just paint something, because I need to create a new work of art before I permit myself to sleep. But if I have a theme to create for, I am forced to think on what my art will be. The thinking process is what makes a good work of art be a great work of art.  I hadn't realized that in the thousands of days of creating art leading up to that point, but it proved true . I got to test the theory out again just a few weeks later when I began my Wizard of Oz themed series.

The other thing that I was reminded of, which having a theme is iteration. Just like my posts on here, I'll write it, read it, and try to improve. With a theme, I have a goal to keep improving towards.  When I started the Day of The Dead stuff, I was focusing on dance and skeletons, but through iteration, I got to dive deeper into the theme, and improve upon it- adding the facet of family- like in this one of a parent raising their child in the air.

I think Steemit will be good for my art career as there are many contests on here, which are just great reasons for me to apply my talents towards a theme.