Every year in the highlands of Guatemala, the town of Sumpango celebrates Day of the Dead by flying kites. The kites are massive, the largest measuring 45 feet in diameter. Smaller kites, close 20 feet in height, are flown in a death-defying race down the side of a mountain. From a distance, the kites appear luminous and blissful, but the radiant colors of the kites mask an ominous subtext. On closer inspection, the images on the sails depict people in agony and torment: mutilated bodies, mass burials, kidnappings, and rivers of blood. In graphic illustration, the kites allude to the dark...
Every year in the highlands of Guatemala, the town of Sumpango celebrates Day of the Dead by flying kites. The kites are massive, the largest measu...
Christopher Ornelas Naomi Shihab Nye Robert Hammond
Pat Hammond is not your ordinary artist. In fact, she doesn't even consider herself an artist. She takes everyday objects, such as spinning tops and jars of cicada shells, and infuses them with new meaning and hope. Through humor and personalization, she uses insignificant and unconventional objects to illuminate a "grand truth" about the world, and even about herself. Author Christopher Ornelas found out about Hammond through her remarkable kite collection--hundreds of kites amassed over twenty years. Hammond's kites, which have been featured at the Smithsonian and the Modern Museum of...
Pat Hammond is not your ordinary artist. In fact, she doesn't even consider herself an artist. She takes everyday objects, such as spinning tops and j...
