Eli - 11-7-2011 at 08:44 AM
Dia de Muerto's is my favorite holiday, I like it a whole lot better than Christmas. It is when we bring those we love back to us by creating images
from our memories of them. This is this years Alter for My Dad.
krafty - 11-7-2011 at 08:47 AM
Very beautiful!
David K - 11-7-2011 at 08:51 AM
Nice memorial Sara!
I miss your dad as well as his amigos Dave Deal and Chuck Potter. I feel so fortunate to call all three my amigos... great Baja pioneers!
Eli - 11-7-2011 at 09:52 AM
Here are some pictures from the 2010 alter I created for Dad. I was on the road in Oaxaca doing a buying trip, so I improvised this little alter in
the back yard of a friends house where I was staying. Dad Loved the image of the Virgin de Guadalupe, so I painted it for him on an old roof tile.
[Edited on 11-7-2011 by Eli]
DianaT - 11-7-2011 at 09:56 AM
Beautiful---lots of time and love went into that creation. Thanks for sharing it.
Eli - 11-7-2011 at 10:12 AM
Thanks David, Krafty and Diana.
Every year for 7 years now, I create a piece for My Dad, this is the first time I have been home to put them all together. I agree Diana, it is an
act of love and time well spent, I assure you.
As I was home, so many people who knew him have visited and reawakened the Ol Man's memories, or people who have never knew him visited and I was
able to introduce them to Don Jimmy. It was a memorable Dia de Muerto this year.
Sallysouth - 11-7-2011 at 10:37 AM
So beautiful Sara.I think I recognize the place.Your gallery?Welcome home!
Eli - 11-7-2011 at 11:19 AM
You are well ubicated Sally, yes it is at the gallery. It was there, the last year that Dad was alive when I built the first alter for several
departed friends. I remember him grabbing an oatmeal cookie off the alter and sitting there munching away contemplating my tribute to death (life). He
knew he was on his way out and of course the next year I built his little memory box while I was in Oaxaca, and so I stepped into this wonderful
tradition.
[Edited on 11-7-2011 by Eli]
Hi, Eli
Gypsy Jan - 11-7-2011 at 07:04 PM
What a loving tribute to your father.
Love and hearts, GJ
Paulina - 11-7-2011 at 08:08 PM
Thank you for sharing. When you posted earlier that you were going to decorate for your dad I was hoping you would share the photos. Thank you very,
very much. Did you also decorate his resting place?
P>*)))>{
Eli - 11-8-2011 at 06:40 AM
Paulina, yep, I finally after all these years figured out what David K was talking about when it comes to posting pictures. Here are the cemetery
photos, much simpler decoration than at the gallery as it is not so easily protected from wind and vandals.
Don Jimmy's Great-grandchildren decorated his and Dona Lupe's graves. She is laid to rest in front of him. When I returned to clean up, I found a
bottle of perfume on her grave and a jar of chili's sitting on my Dad's tumba. I expect that my step-brother visited after we were there.
MY Dad loved to smoke, in the end, it was the chemical fire he always sent down to his lungs that got him. As, such, I could not resesit adding the
cig. to the jack-o-lantern candle holder.
Sallysouth - 11-8-2011 at 07:44 PM
Sara, for sure, your dear ol Dad loves you and gets a kick out of your celebrations of his life here.!What a great daughter.Doubt that anything even
remote will be like that for me in the end 
Yeah just burn er and dump her in the
ocean somewhere...)
Sallysouth - 11-8-2011 at 07:46 PM
Sara, Could you take a video of your gallery, pan it and post it?I would LOVE to see all of the art!Just a thought. hugs
Paulina - 11-8-2011 at 09:19 PM
Thank you for sharing all of your photos. I love them all, specially the smoking Jack -o - lantern. I'm sure Don Jimmy got a kick out of it too!
What a wonderful celebration.
P>*)))>{
Eli - 11-9-2011 at 07:10 AM
Sally, I will try to at least post a series of pictures of the gallery soon. It is good practice for me to remember how to do the picture posting, I
have been wanting to share my photos with Nomads for years. I just have trouble focusing sometimes on directions, so it took a special day to put my
mind to it and wha-la, I did it.
I know how much your girls love you, you will not be forgotten all that quickly Sally, I bet they will celebrate you life for years after you are
gone, one does not need a grave site to be remembered.
I personally would love to be thrown naked with a rock around me far out into the sea and let the critters on the bottom have a feast. I doubt this
will happen, cremation is so much easier for everyone to deal with. Although, I do believe in a little of what goes around comes around, I sure have
been enjoying what the sea provides for me to eat for many years now.
Jan, thanks for the Love it is reciprocated.
Paulina, glad you enjoyed, I will continue with the alter up in the gallery for a week or two more, people still are stopping by and giving me the
chance to bring Dad back for a conversation there. I always keep a little shrine for him in the corner of the gallery, it keeps him alive for me, and
gives me a chance to share who he was with new folks to the area who did not know him. I want to keep him around as long as I can, you know.