Gallery Guide: Ancient Roots & Modern Alters by Santiago Jaramillo

Made possible by The Summit Foundation

Ancient Roots and Modern Altars is a visual journey from the sacred ancient images of the Aztec to modern Mexican/Mexican-American celebrations of Día de los Muertos. Santiago Jaramillo’s paintings and murals are filled with images from the ancient Aztec/Mixtec codices mixed with the artists’ inspiration from over 20 years of experience in Aztec dance and research of Pre-Columbian symbols.

Along with Jaramillos’s remix of past and present imagery, Summit County Teens (Dillon Valley Elementary, Snowy Peaks High School, Summit High School, and Upper Blue Elementary) contributed to community altars to honor loved ones that have passed on and to honor ancestors. As an activist for responsible fatherhood in his community, inviting children to contribute to this exhibition was of importance to the artist. On the altars situated on the gallery first floor, marigold papel flores in gold and orange reflect energy and life. The synergistic cycle of life, death, birth, and creation is repeated in Jaramillo’s personal life, work, and in the Día de los Muertos celebration.

Decorated sugar skulls are also present, a modern metamorphosis of the image of the chief MesoAmerican death god Mictlantecuhtli.

Summit County students provided the photos of lost loved ones and created the memory frames, the mini-altars created on matchboxes, and requested food items specific to the tastes of those lost. Papel

Picado is strung from the ceiling, an art practice passed down from the Aztecs who created the delicately stamped scenes in amate paper created with pressed bark.

Santiago Jaramillo’s personal metamorphosis is imbued in every decision in Ancient Roots + Modern Altars. Jaramillo identifies as a recovering alcoholic with a perspective on being that is always moving toward the future. The things that happened in the past are behind, dead; what lies ahead on his personal journey is life and energy. Only through that death of the past are the great gifts of beauty and creation in Jaramillo’s life possible. For the Aztec peoples, death and life were not dichotomous concepts – both existed on an equal plane without holding significance as good or bad. Death is not to be feared or hated, it is part of existence and a requirement for life. The ancient Indigenous holiday of Día de los Muertos, “Mikailhuikatonal” in Nahuatl, is the quintessential illustration of how the loss of a loved one is to be celebrated for the journey ahead rather than despaired over.

That voyage from death to life is illustrated in the upstairs gallery.

Moving from East to West, a lifeforce leaves the Palace of Death, escorted by chief god Mictlantecuhtli and chief goddess Mictlantecihuatl, and is finally offered up in the mouth of two crocodiles. Mariposas (butterflies) fly above, another symbol of metamorphosis and a carrier of spirits to the afterlife. The final altar on the East wall is created by Jaramillo as a dedication to past Aztec dance leaders. Personal affects of those that came before him in this sacred practice line the altar.

Above the altar is the symbol of the offering, a manifestation of the work put into Día de los Muertos to honor the dead.

For Jaramillo, connecting with ancient Pre-Columbian dance practices and becoming a danzante has been a central part of his personal transformation. The dances he performs move through life, death, and creation, and in that practice, he has journeyed to find his Indigenous ancestors and sacred rites and rituals. In Ancient Roots, Jaramillo lays bare his own relationship and acceptance of the balance of beginnings and ends and asks visitors to approach not with fear but hope.

SANTIAGO JARAMILLO Santiago Jaramillo is a third generation Westwood resident in Denver, an artist, the cofounder of D3 Arts, and Board President of BuCu West. Jaramillo helped form the Westwood Creative Arts District and is co-owner of The Empress Artist Collective. He is also an Aztec Dancer and leader of Chimaltonalli dance group, a community activist, and a Fatherhood rights advocate. He has been painting for over thirty years and has been featured in many galleries, lectured in academic settings, and works regularly as a muralist.

Instagram: @santixochitl