The Dia De Los Muertos Celebration on Friday November 2 from 5:00 to 10:00 pm opens the Juried Art Exhibit for Sea Breeze Art Gallery's Third Annual event located at 255 South Laurel Street in Ventura.

Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead) is the time of year when the veil between the earthly world and the heavenly plane is thin and our departed loved ones are able to visit us. As we consider how all things have an eventual ending, we are drawn into the importance of the Now.The Birth of the Celebration:Stacie Logue, creative director of Sea Breeze Art Gallery's Dia de los Muertos Celebration and the gallery's owner/founder Sandra McCullough are both fascinated with the holiday known as Dia de los Muertos. Both women appreciate the philosophy of honoring death as a cycle of life. They also were interested in bringing the blended community we live in together. Logue suggested to McCullough that the gallery have a Dia de los Muertos celebration & juried art show. That was 2 years ago. They are on their third annual celebration. Logue builds the community altar inside the gallery as a showpiece to the exhibit. There is a marigold path that leads from the door to the altar. Logue maintains the tradition of the Dia de los Muertos ofrenda by making it four-tiered, decorating it with candles, marigolds, reeds from the riverbed, photographs and food for her relatives who have passed. Other Sea Breeze Resident Artists also contribute to the celebration with papel picados, luminarias, Calaveras face-painting... and more. Contributing Spirits: Oxnard artist, Arturo Rivas joins Sea Breeze again as the guest curator for the juried art exhibit. Rivas works in acrylic on metal. A welder by trade, he has incorporated this skill into his art and incorporates the visual tradition of Dia de los Muertos into his artwork. Participating in art venues around the county, Rivas has exhibited at the De Colores Art Exhibit in Santa Paula and is currently exhibiting at Under The Sun at Bell Arts Factory. He is also known in the California hot rod culture for his airbrushing on metal having participated at the annual West Coast Primer Nationals Car Show at the Ventura Fairgrounds. A new addition to the 2007 celebration is the beautiful harp music of Xavier Montes. Montes, a native to Santa Paula, has been a strong influence in the local Latin arts scene. He is a professional artist, arts educator and musician widely known for being the founder of the De Colores Art Exhibit in Santa Paula. Montes will be performing his beautiful Mexican folk music on his harp at the Friday night celebration. Other Ventura artists are contributing to the celebration and exhibit: MB Hanarhan is donating a couple of wonderful pieces as well as entering the juried exhibit. Lori Pegg-Scott will be displaying the artwork of her third grade students. She will be entering the exhibit too. Maribel Hernandez has been a contributor in past years and will be in attendance probably dressed as a Calavera. There will be many other local artists who will contribute to the juried art exhibit that coincides with the celebration but until submission day, that remains a mystery.