Dear Curiosity Journal,
Today I visited my good friend and founding board member of Driftless Curiosity, Gabriela Marvan, to drop off some of our Dia de Muertos fundraising shirts. Gaby is also the founder of the Mexican Folk Art Collective and had the idea to start the Driftless Region’s Dia de Muertos Celebration in 2021. This year we will host the 3rd annual event and Gaby, along with her husband Ryan, have been busy creating cartoneria (paper mache) for the celebration on Saturday, October 7th. I was delighted to see all of the colorful Catrinas, Alebrijes, and the giant Judas filling up her apartment. Gabriela brings traditional Mexican folk art to life with an infectious spark of creativity and joy and I just love seeing her pieces come together. Last year, Gaby taught a group of us how to make paper mache and now I can’t wait to get my hands in some grudo (paper mache paste/glue) to work on my own project for the ofrenda.
~Joy
