Francisca

My name is Francisca, I use she/her pronouns and am a student at Seattle Girls School. Art is so important to me because it is a way to express myself and my emotions without needed words, but instead visuals. I prefer showing my feelings through art because it’s easier and you can incorporate more feelings than you can when you are using words. I also think art is important to all of society. I know many people feel the same way I do about expressing myself through art rather than words. Not just that but there are so many types of art and that means there are even more ways of expressing yourself.

My piece is an Ofrenda, if you aren't sure what that is. An Ofrenda is an offering set up in a home setting during the annual and traditional “Dia de los Muertos” (also known as “Day of the Dead”). My family is Mexican so we celebrate Dia de los Muertos but so do people all over Latin America. While we were brainstorming ideas for this project around Dia de los Muertos I thought it would be perfect to make a mini ofrenda to appreciate my ancestors. I used a lot of clay, for the base and for a lot of the offerings. I painted a lot of the offerings as well. For the flowers, I used tissue paper. I also printed out all the photos you see on my piece. For this, I wanted to make sure the base looked a little worn down to give it personality and that's why I used clay. 

Ofrenda, 2024

Air dry clay sculpture 

Mixed media