Day of the Dead Coffin

Gangster de Muerto mixed media / 2011

Dia de los Muertos (The Day of the Dead) is a National Holiday in Mexico and celebrated in different forms around the world.  The day of prayer and dedication to the dearly departed is November 1-2 coinciding with All Saints' Day and All Souls' Day, Catholic holidays.  

Every year about this time, a slew of art shows pop up across the country with themes based around The Day of the Dead.  One in particular stood out to me last year at Young Blood Gallery in Atlanta with their unique concept for an annual group event.  The gallery actually constructs a limited number of wooden coffins to distribute to artists who paint, forge, illustrate, sculpt and otherwise construct their deadicated art.  Painlessly enough, through an inquiry with the gallery, they were all too happy to ship a coffin to me gaining me entry into this intriguing exhibit.  On Halloween Monday, my coffin for this year's exhibit arrived safe and sound in ATL and will be on display starting this Saturday, November 5th for their annual Day of the Dead exhibit.  I'll be rubbing my gorilla glued paws together in anticipation for next year's show and a third coffin but in the mean time, check out these process pictures and what I did this year...

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Young Blood Gallery's Day of the Dead Exhibit

This month, Young Blood Gallery and Boutique in Atlanta will be hosting a Day of the Dead themed group exhibit where over 70 artists will be painting and working with miniature coffins crafted by the gallery for their exhibit.


When I read about this exhibit a few months back, I knew I had to get in on the action. What a neat concept! Tracy at the gallery was nice enough to work with me and get a coffin shipped out several weeks back. I did my coffin up DREGstudios! style over this past weekend. Here are some pics of the process start to finish...


The coffin was completely raw when it arrived. I used some wood filler to smooth things out before I got to painting...






After getting my coffin prepped, I laid my base colors down and accented my roses for the inside with spray paint...




And now to work on the center-piece for the coffin which is a 2"x3" illustration to go inside a frame I got to hang inside!


Now to get everything together and decorated! Aurora lent some beads from her jewelry-making stash and we dissected some flowers I got...






Let the candle burn for a minute for effect...




Sketching the pattern of skulls and hearts for the outside of my coffin in pastel. I painted these on tonight when I got home from work to finish things up!



What a great show and concept. My coffin will be in back in route to Atlanta this week for the exhibit which opens Saturday night, October 30th at Young Blood. Make sure to check out this unique exhibit if you're in the area! You can get all the details here on the poster including how to drop by the gallery that afternoon for a lesson on making your own sugar skulls before the show!

I'll also have work in the upcoming Day of the Dead exhibit at Kustom Thrills in Nashville! Leave a comment and let me know what you think of my coffin for the Atlanta show!