nika rebekah

i returned from arizona with my heart full of love, my body energized & motivated towards the coming weeks in which i fervently & frantically apply to graduate school. it was so emmensely satisfying to be among my dearest friends, my family, my desert town. as lauren & i traversed the desert under a curtain of winter rain, i saw the rocks, red dirt & cacti as i had never seen them-- brilliant & otherworldly. falling in love with the place i grew up, all over again. i am so complacent knowing that tucson is there & can return to it when i may feel lost.

the most exciting occasion & reason for my visit was the all souls procession. i'm sure i've talked about it before, but the all souls procession is a tucson tradition, linked directly to the mexican dia de los muertos. the mexican day of the dead has many affiliate traditions, with the creation of altars, decoration & picnicking in the cemetary, commemoration etc. the all souls procession is similar in that people commemorate the dead, but it is also an exceptionally celebratory occasion. i have often thought that it feels a bit like brazilian carnival with the music, dancing, & extreme masquerading. in tucson, people of all ages, but in particular, people in my age group put a lot of emphasis upon the creation of a costume for all souls, & halloween is less important if not disregarded entirely. this year, i chose to commemorate my personal nostalgia for the desert by interpreting a historic photograph from tucson of a 40's pin up wearing an outfit made of cactus. i painstakingly created articifical cactus pieces, & the result was pretty successful, i think. it was really validating to have strangers taking pictures of me, having people buy me drinks, & i was offered a free ticket to see calexico play that night. it was a magical occasion, possibly one of the best that i've had. this year was the 20th annversary of the first procession, so there was a lot of energy put into the occasion, which was really evident in the experience i had.

i have been participating in all souls for what seems like forever. i went through & realized that i have some form of documentation of my costume from almost ever year. some of them are terrible. & you can definitely tell which ones i spent time on & which i didn't. voila :

2009: cactus girl


2008: someone said i looked "spit out by the sea". sort of a mermaid interpretation.


2007: miss coney island, 1928. commemorating coney island, which was partially demolished in early 2008. sierra as a bird & kate commemorating her uncle who devoted his life to searching for amelia earhart.


2006: commemorating my grandfather who died august 29th, 2006



2005: i dont know. sean looks great, though.


2004: wearing my mother's wedding dress, from her 1st marriage.


2003: my first mermaid interpretation.



2002? i think that perhaps this is earlier. maybe 2000. i remember being about 15 here, which would make it older than 2002. i look so young. & carlie too.


somewhere in here, there was also a dress that i constructed completely of silk leaves that was really beautiful. i have no pictures of that, nor do i have any idea where the dress went. sad. i think it's interesting to see the linage of my costumes & how i have repeated certain ideas & progressively put more thought & effort into my designs.

more pictures of the night & all of my beautiful friends at my flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/15675538@N06/