“Dia de los Muertos Band” from PurpleTwinkie’s Flickr stream.  Licensed via the Creative Commons.

El muerto al cajon, y el vivo al fieston! (The dead one to the coffin and the living one to the big party)– Dia de los Muertos greeting.

I feel a bit bad about how into Dia de los Muertos I am– after all, I am pretty white, don’t speak a word of Spanish, and generally like Day of the Dead as art and not so much for its religious or cultural aspects.  But come on, the art is so pretty– after years of loving the hyper-modern look of a lot of mid-20th century art and design I’ve recently gotten really attracted to ornately decorated objects.  Part of it might be my new-found appreciation for the 19th century, but I also think that the more I craft the more I appreciate how hard it is to make that much ornamentation look good and not junky.  Also, I will shamelessly adopt any culture that loves marigolds (sometimes called the “Flor de Muerto“).  Orange and bright yellow flowers are my favorite.

A round-up of some of my favorite Dia de los Muertos art and design around the web:

• Lady Liberty Calavera print from MisNopalesArt’s Etsy shop;
• All the photos tagged with Dia de los Muertos over at Flickr (it was hard to pick just one to put above);
• Just about everything at UC Studios via Crafty Bastards;
• I miss the Gold Door in Portland, OR– they carried incredible Dia de los Muertos art but, sadly, the online store isn’t that great;
• These sugar skulls look too pretty to eat! (via MexicanSugarSkull.com); and
• Betty Turbo’s Kitchen Calavera card – baking skeleton number one (via Etsy).

Hope that, whether or not you’re into Mexican folk art, Catholicism, Latin America, or whatever else– you had a happy Halloween and are taking some time to think about people who meant a lot to you today (and every day).