Victory Park
1201 N. Pershing Ave.
Stockton, CA  95203
(209) 940-6300   
info@hagginmuseum.org

Families in Mexico and the United States gather every year on November 2 to create an altar, or ofrenda, to commemorate loved ones who have passed on. In recent years, many museums and galleries have invited special guest artists to create an ofrenda to be shared with the public. This year The Haggin Museum has invited artist Monique Montez to create the ofrenda for Día de los Muertos.

 This year’s altar will be dedicated to the Aztec Goddess Xochiquetzal “flower feather” (pronounced show-cheek-WET-zal). The goddess of weavers, embroidery, painters, sculptors, engravers and poets, she is also the patroness of women, twins, butterflies, flowers and spiritual transformation. She is often depicted wearing a blue dress woven with flowers, a garland of green, yellow, and red feathers, and golden ear plugs.

In honoring Xochiquetzal, Montez will pay tribute to individuals who have brought comfort, inspiration and spiritual growth to those around them through the practice of cultivating gardens.

Humble and transitory, gardens connect creativity and the bringing of beauty to a tangible awareness of the cycle of life, death and transformation. They offer the living an activity to assuage grief and a place to celebrate loved ones all through the year. In preparation for creating this ofrenda, Montez has been collecting flowers and making special inks using the dried blooms.

A graduate of San Joaquin Delta College and former member of Artistas del Valle and The Mexican Heritage Center, Montez currently attends the University of the Pacific as a major in Studio Art. A “Jane of all trades,” she is a painter, sculptor, photographer and embroiderer.

The ofrenda will be dedicated Sunday, October 22, at the 3rd Annual Tarde De Flor Y Canto.