Día de los Muertos

Día De Las Muertos

The person I decided to focus on for this project was my older sister Jasmine Lewis.  She was the second oldest out of my 5 siblings and honestly one of the most fun.  Jasmine was the one I went to when I needed someone to talk to but didn’t really feel like anyone else would have the answers to what I needed help with.  No matter what the situation was she would be there to help me out in it whether I was at fault or not.  She was a full supporter.  Unfortunately Jasmine was one of my sisters that had sickle cell.  The trait of this disease runs through my family but not everyone was born with it.  However, her case of sickle cell grew more severe as she went on with life.  The older she got the more she ended up in the hospital due to pains from this disease.  She always wanted to treat someone just because of the simple fact that she enjoyed making people happy.  She has passed away on March 29, 2014 before her 27th birthday and it was one of the largest wake up calls that my family could have received because no one was expecting it and it seemed like we almost took our moments with her for granted.  She was always a giver and would rarely expect something in return.

Jasmine meant a lot to me as do all of my older siblings.  We seemed to have this connection of some sort where she would always understand my point of view or where my reasoning was coming from.  She was also a very positive person almost all the time.  She did have her moments where she may not have been the most positive if she was made angry but that’s just human.  Jasmine was a huge source of knowledge for me.  Whenever there was a time where I felt like almost everyone was against me in a situation, she was always there by my side.  I always tried my hardest to do the  same for her as often as I could.  Jasmine and I were a team.  I had most of my first time experiences with her such as visiting Penn's Landing, going to Love Park downtown, and visiting the Philadelphia art museum.  She was a curious explorer when it came to certain things.  If she heard about a place that she thought one of her siblings would like, she would eventually arrange plans to visit that place with them or even the rest of the family.  She sometimes even was a connector for our family.  There would be times where she would bring us back together if we had not spent time with each other in a while.  For example there would be times where Jasmine would visit and encourage us to come together and eat dinner as a family to catch up on times that we missed and just to spend quality time with each other.  

I honestly decided to create my sugar skull and mask in remembrance of her because she’s the closest family member that I have lost.  She is on my mind almost every day and I know everyone misses her dearly and they are holding in a lot of emotions so I felt that it would be good to express some of those emotions in this skull and mask portion of the project.  I felt that she was the most necessary to base this project on because she was a huge part of me and she was one of my largest sources of joy and happiness.  I believe she was that way for just about everyone in the family.  She spoke nothing but positive words and honored almost everyone she knew dead or alive so I felt that it was a great idea to honor her in this project.

In this project, my sugar skulls was painted a greenish blue.  This greenish blue represents one of her favorite colors besides pink.  This blue is painted on most of the skull because of that.  There is also a red trip down the back of the head.  This represents the hairstyle that Jasmine had which was a mohawk that was straightened and leaned toward the side that was dyed red.  If you look at the front of the skull you’ll notice that mouth area of the skull is a different color from the rest.  I decided to paint this part yellow because Jasmine was almost always speaking positive words.  The yellow is supposed to point out that her words were always either bright and encouraging or brought some sort of happiness. There are also yellow highlights on the outline of the mohawk to represent the bright parts of her mindset and the way she thought about things in a positive way.  The red strip borderlining the bottom of the skull is there to represent her strength from being able to deal with the pains of sickle cell almost all day, everyday and yet still remaining a positive person overall.  There are also simple red designs on the side of the skull that represent the red glasses she had but the eye part is sparkling and defined.  This represents the amazing way that she looked at different things and situations in life.  

My mask for this project is also a reflection of my sister’s characteristics and tendencies.  The blue highlights that go throughout the mask design are to represent her favorite color once again.  I was sure to put the blue highlights in more than one place in the mask and also make it stand out in contrast with the red background.  There are 2 bright blue stars on the design of the forehead of the mask that represent how she found a way to see things the positive way and how she liked to explore.  The stars represent exploration because there are many stars and there is so much to explore in the universe.  The reddish pink color of the background of the mask represents how bright of a person she was overall because even though she dealt with a severe illness, she always managed to bring joy and stay bright.  The overall colors of the mask are meant to represent her bright the positive characteristics that Jasmine seemed to have almost all of the time.

The Day of the Dead has opened my mind up to the positive idea of the celebrating the passing of loved ones.  Usually I would only think of death as a bad thing and I would really hate it if a family member passed away but the Day of the dead has opened my eyes and has encouraged me to think of the positive that could be in the situation.  There are benefits especially for my sister such as the fact that now that she has passed away, she no longer has to deal with any pain or hurt that may have been caused by the sickle cell she had.  She also does not have to deal with any drama or tragedies caused by humans in general.  I know that my sister Jasmine Lewis has moved on to a better place and I and actually very glad that she did.  I am still sad and angry to have lost her in the first place but I am now able to remind myself of the positive fact that she no longer has to suffer at all anymore.  She has moved on into a better place and I am able to use that as another source of joy.

Panegírico

Hola, me llamo Jordan Lewis.  Yo soy un estudiante de grado diez.  Yo asisto ciencia y liderato en Beeber.  Esta mi panegírico.  Jasmine fue nacer la ocho de junio.  Ella es de Filadelfia.  Jasmine es mi grande hermana.  Ella es el segundo mayor hermana en la familia.  Ella es cómica y alta para una chica.  Jasmine es muy inteligente.  Ella disfrutó provocar gente feliz.  Yo soy en a bueno condición.  Yo sé ella está en un lugar mejor.  Yo extraño mi hermana, ella era muy importante.  Ella era a bueno hermana. Mi hermana Jasmine era a grande parte de mi familia. Yo soy feliz porque ella no sufre. Nosotros extrañamos ella pero nosotros somos feliz para Jasmine.