Miquitzli (Linocut)

Beginning the first of my Altar Icon print series, starting with La Santa Muerte. Titled “Miquitzli” meaning “Death” in Nahuatl” Appropriate to start this series off with a figure I am heavily familiar with, as it is an integral part to Mexican culture.

-A personification of Death varying from cultures, and practices. A skeletal figure seems to be common iconography and universal to us in any period of humankind.

-Often misunderstood, misinterpreted, and not in anyway evil or satanic. Quite the contrary, the religion is a product of Mexican pre-Hispanic folk beliefs and Catholic syncretism.

-The relationship to traditional folk beliefs stem from the Aztec pantheon, associated with Mictecacihuatl, the Queen of the Ninth level of Mictlan, in charge of protecting the bones of the dead.

-Santa Muerte is a female deity, often robed with different colors, accompanied by an owl, the world, scales, an hourglass, and her scythe.

-November 1st & 2nd are the days families celebrate death in Mexico, Dia De Los Muertos. With beautifully decorated altars called Ofrendas.

“Death is democratic. No matter your colour or creed, your wealth or your poverty, everyone ends up as a skull in the end.” -Jose Guadalupe Posada

Print measures 8” x 10” in.