Respect for the Dead

While reading Scott McCloud's "Understanding Comics," McCloud brought up a great point about how the design of comics revealed the differences in cultures of eastern and western civilizations:
"Traditional western art and literature don't wander much. On the whole, we're pretty goal-oriented culture. But, in the east, there's a rich tradition of cyclical and labyrinthine works of art. Japanese comics may be heirs to this tradition, in the way they so often emphasize being there over getting there." (Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud, page 81)
Looking at the big picture, it made me realize how much design and art reflects different cultures, as well as zeitgeist.


Día de los muertos" Diego Rivera (1925)

This past weekend, I visited Fresno with a friend and we spontaneously decided to go see the Arte Américas: Casa de la Cultura art gallery. I noticed how a prominent theme in Mexican folk art is the Los Dias De Los Muertos (Day of the Dead). Often in these works, vibrant colors would be used on a black canvas (instead of white) and illustrate skeletons of people dressed in traditional Mexican costumes. The vibrant colors on black created an fluorescent effect that really grabs a person's attention. The paintings I saw were beautifully haunting-- the way the skeletons were so full of life, even though they were dead.

Picture from Day of the Dead holiday in San Miguel Allende, Mexico (2008)

It's interesting to see how the Hispanic culture is so engaged in life after death that their traditions resonate through art and design. It gives the outside world a look into how they have elevated respect for the dead and for their history. In this way, we see how art becomes a design because it has a purpose.

links/credit:
Understanding Comics by Scott McCloud
http://arteamericas.org/index.html (Arte Américas: Casa de la Cultura)
[1st picture] Google Images: http://weblogs.clarin.com/revistaenie-testigoocular/archives/2008/10/ (Diego Rivera's "Dia de los muertos")
[2nd picture] http://community.adn.com/node/133849 (Article about Day of the Day in San Miguel Allende, Mexico 2008)