Hand Crafted Catrina Skeleton Sculpture from Mexico, "Catrina with Watermelon"

Working in papier mache, Marina Lozano of Mexico creates this excellent catrina statuette. The skeletal sculpture is elegantly dressed, with ribbons and flowers in her hair and a large slice of watermelon in her hands. Lozano designs the figurine after the original "La Calavera Catrina", a zinc etching created by the artist José Guadalupe Posada in Mexico around 1910. Posada created the character, a female skeleton with an elegant hat, as a satirical portrait of Mexican natives who aspired to European style and denied their own heritage. The catrina has since become an emblem of Mexico's Day of the Dead celebration and a popular folk art subject.