PLAYING IT GHOUL
Artist’s imaginative skull art taps into whimsical humor, Day of the Dead traditions
Elaine Lewis has been doing bonehead art, on and off, for about 10 years now.
Don’t misunderstand. There’s nothing dim witted about this work. It is, in fact, wildly imaginative, extravagantly colorful, gloriously ghoulish and, most of all, fabulously fun. What makes it bonehead is that it’s all built on images of the human skull.
Lewis, an Albuquerque native, said her skull art was inspired by her collection of catrinas, those skeletal figurines, often, but not always, feminine that are portrayed glamorously and/or humorously and usually associated now with the Mexican holiday known as Day of the Dead, traditionally celebrated on Nov. 1 and 2.
“Look at them,” Lewis said, gesturing toward the generous display of catrinas in Masks y Mas, the Albuquerque Nob Hill store devoted to Day of the Dead art and accessories. “They are wearing clothes and drinking. They are having
a great time. They represent a much more positive way of looking at death, and that is what made me think I could be outrageous with the skulls.”
Six of Lewis’ flamboyant skulls are on display at Masks y Mas. These include “Can You See Me Now,” a skull augmented with doll arms and wooden buttons for eyes and adorned with oversized glasses and a black boa; “Ready for My Close Up,” a startlingly purple skull with upside-down earrings for eyes and a white boa for show; and “That’ll Be the Day,” a silver skull that wears red roses where its hair would have been.
Queen of spray paint
“She seemed like a Southern lady to me,” Lewis said of the skull art called “That’ll Be the Day.” You can almost hear the drawl in the work’s title.
Lewis starts by collecting skulls made of plastic, plaster and other materials. Then she adds stuff to them — warped vinyl records, the beaters from a kitchen mixer, large screws. “That’ll Be the Day,” for an example, has eyes made of glass stones and parts of a necklace and is mounted on a bottom-side-up Jello mold.
“My garage is full of things — baskets filled with dolls’ arms and legs, tons of jewelry, buttons, fabrics,” she said. “We go to garage sales and my sister says, ‘What are you going to do with that?’ Now people just leave things at my door. It’s kind of scary.”
And then there are the bold and brilliant colors — turquoise, gold, bronze, red and black, orange and black.
“I have all of this spray paint. I’m the queen of spray paint,” she said. “This work comes from a whole separate part of my brain. The skulls just call out to me and they grow.”
A life with art
Lewis grew up with a brother and two sisters in Albuquerque’s North Valley, attended Valley High School in the 1960s and went on to earn degrees in English and art at the University of New Mexico.
Over the years, she has been a flight attendant for United Airlines; a partner in a Rio Rancho dental lab, where she became adept at making porcelain crowns and dentures; and worked at art galleries and bookstores. But some kind of art — weaving, jewelry work, pottery, painting — has always been part of her life.
She did lots of landscapes and interiors in oils before switching four or five years ago to abstract work done with acrylics.
“I read this article about some abstract artist who just started painting, turning (the canvas) as he painted,” she said. “That’s what I do, paint and turn until the painting tells me, ‘This is where I belong.’”
Finding direction from the work in progress is a method that has proved as successful for Lewis with her abstracts as it has with her skulls. A show of her abstract paintings was up at Nob Hill’s Mariposa Gallery recently.
Grim but whimsical
You get the sense that the abstracts draw on a deeper, more introspective side of Lewis while the skulls tap into her inner child and feed on a more playful aspect of her nature.
The mother of a married daughter and a 14-year-old grandson, Lewis said she started her grandson decorating skulls when he was 4. And it was a request from her son-inlaw that resulted in her creating the grim but whimsical red-and-black skull called “Darth Maul,” based on the “Star Wars” character of the same name. “Garth Maul,” the black and orange skull now on display at Masks y Mas, is, presumably, Darth Maul’s country cousin.
“The skulls give me a happy feeling,” she said.
Which is the way it should be for art that, deep down, is rooted in the Day of the Dead, a jubilant remembrance of beloved family members who have died. The holiday is celebrated in Mexico and by people of Mexican ancestry living in other places such as the Southwest.
“You kind of get it by osmosis when you live in Albuquerque,” Lewis said. “And five or six years ago I was in Bahia de Kino, on the Sea of Cortez, in Mexico during Day of the Dead. People go to cemeteries with flowers, lots of food, candles and music. It’s a joyful celebration.”