Weddings

My tag was inspired by BODAS DE SANGRE (Blood Wedding), which was written by the Spanish poet, dramatist, and theater director, Federico García Lorca.  García Lorca was a master in using metaphors and symbols to convey meanings behind his work, which is often filled with social criticisms about the culture at that time.  In BODAS DE SANGRE, García Lorca deals with the desires, repression, and constraints in a rural Spanish community, and how they lead to death.  I remember reading this play in preparatory school, watching the play with my wife when we were dating, and most recently, reading it with each of my daughters when they took advanced Spanish in High School. Therefore, even though it's a tragic story, I have fond memories of it.

Since I wanted a stark vintage feel, I used a very limited color palette to design my tag.  I created the background by printing portions of the original text, distressing it, and adding some "blood" stains with ink.  I designed the Spanish style dress using scraps of ribbon and lace, as well as a miniature string of pearls.  For my embellishments, I used tissue tape; made a hand painted rose using a Tim Holtz tattered pinecone die; cut a photograph of García Lorca using a stamp punch; and hand cut a banner.  I hand wrote Flores Rotas (Dead Flowers) on the banner, because that's the phrase García Lorca used to describe the eyes of the dead in this play.  I tied a strip of distressed jute cord as topper to finish the tag. To stage my tag for the photograph, I used a Spanish embroidered shawl, tortoise peineta, and hand painted fan that my mother got when she and my late father travelled in Spain circa 1970.

I hope you like my tag as much as I enjoyed making it.  I also highly recommend that you read this and other Federico García Lorca's literary works, which are recognized internationally.  Blessings!