La Luz De Jesus recently hosted the 14th installment of Everything but the Kitschen Sync – a mammoth group art exhibit with no theme, that showcased over 225 pieces from over 100 artists.
Lalo Cota is known by his trademark colorful skull-infused art that represents his Mexican heritage and pays homage to his love of Dia de los Muertos. Unlike many of today’s top artists, Lalo never attended art school. He believes that, “Art schools teach you to be like everyone else and that defeats the purpose of being an artist.” Lalo took advantage of classes throughout his public school days and focused his advanced education on developing his business practices. His work can be seen in the form of murals, billboards, stickers, paintings, and his own t-shirt line that will be soon launching on his website. He’s also done his share of painting on human canvases and has even designed actual bust casts from real models in the name of Breast Cancer awareness.
Lalo set down his paintbrushes to share his artistic thoughts with ChinaShop:
The historic Hollywood Forever Cemetery began to open its grounds to Dia De Los Muertos celebrations over one hundred tears ago. For just one night each year, the tombstones along its main roads are transformed into spectacular shrines honoring the dead. Friends and relatives talk about the altars they’ve created and share their memories of the departed. These colorful, glowing constructions are bedecked with candles, marigolds, sugar skulls, and personal artifacts. The latter range from photographs and childhood toys to favorite clothing and delicacies. Each altar is a celebration of a life, complete with gifts, food, and tales of glories past - Oingo Boingo’s song, “Dead Man’s Party”, comes to mind. Participants have less than twenty-four hours to assemble the monuments, which must be torn down at the end of the seven-hour event. In addition to admiring these temporary sanctums, thousands of visitors make their way down dimly-lit paths to feast on traditional Latin American cuisine and check out art exhibits inside the main mausoleum, musical performances, costumed processions, and choreographed Aztec dance numbers.
Words and photos by Zoetica Ebb
