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The Grim Reaper, La Muerte, La Huesuda (the bone lady known by rural Mexico), Mors Santi as renamed by artist Ricardo Chavez-Mendez, has been portrayed as something to be feared. But Ricardo portrays her as standing in a doorway as a lady in waiting, waiting for you to tell her when you are ready to leave this realm. We should have no fear for she comes to deliver us to our maker, peacefully.

Most images of Mors Santi have her holding a scythe and a globe symbolizing that life itself is held in her hands, for the scythe cuts the silver thread between this realm and the next but Ricardo places the sun in her hand and her other hand playing with the earth. Sun to the artist symbolizes energy and so when she takes life from the earth she is in essence taking our energy and giving it back to the universe. Other images have her holding an hourglass symbolizing death as not final but merely a transition to another existence, like flipping over an hourglass basically starting time over...

Born in Torreon, Coahuila, Mexico, self-taught artist, Ricardo Chavez-Mendez moved to Albuquerque, New Mexico at the age of 28. The use of the airbrush for detail in his earlier work has earned him the nickname, "Dali of the Desert," by Airbrush Action Magazine, an apt comparison which he relishes. Ricardo is truly an extraordinary artist. Currently he is introducing the art form "Curvismo" or curvism by way of teaching and gaining a following into the movement. He is the official portrait artist of the Mariachi Spectacular de Albuquerque for the last 20 years. He also designed the official logo. Ricardo is included in various publications including "New Mexico Millennium Collection: A Twenty-First Century Celebration of Fine...