Eryn James: Sugar Skull Project

To me, a sugar skull is a creation to adorn and celebrate the life of someone who is deceased. Sugar skulls are from the Mexican celebration on the Day Dead, which is a national holiday. It’s main focus is to get family and friends together and remember the loved ones who have died. Sugar skulls are brought to graves of children as well as toys. They are gifts for both the living and the dead, made usually from granulated white sugar, icing and other decorative accessories. They are edible but are normally used as decoration. 

The decorations of a sugar skull are to represent how you feel or felt about the loved one or just to make something so ugly as death be beautiful. I thought about the death of my father as I decorated my skull. I decided that I only wanted to remember the good things about my dad, which I incorporated into the mask by using bright colors and  and images such as hearts, peace signs, flowers and smiley faces. My father was a really peaceful man although very cautious and would keep himself and his loved ones safe at any cost. 

The process of making this particular sugar skull wasn’t too time consuming but it was a very tedious process. First I had to find a person who would let me use their face as a base. Then I had to tediously apply plaster over their face, trying to capture the full figure of their face so that when the plaster dried it would actually look like a skull.