By Kyle Polillo
On most mornings, Andrea Lekberg and her team at The Artist Baker in Morristown are busily preparing scones, pies and even chocolate wedding cakes.
But last Friday found Lekberg putting finishing touches on a week-long art exhibit that will honor victims of the mass shootings in Uvalde, Texas, and Buffalo, NY.
“Everyday we have been working on parts of the installation, and I’m looking at the pictures of the children, looking at pictures of the elders, their ages, finding out more about them, and it’s just heartbreaking,” said Lekberg.
She has collaborated with Kori Gervasio of Colly Flowers to create a flower-bedecked altar that includes handcrafted sugar skulls and photos and illustrations reflecting interests of the victims.
El Día de los Muertos, Day of the Dead: Opening the Gates will run from Nov. 1-7, 2022, during normal business hours in the lobby at 14 Maple Ave., home of Morris Arts.
The public also is invited to an opening reception on Tuesday, Nov. 1, from 5:30 pm to 7:30 pm in the nonprofit’s third-floor gallery. Attendees are encouraged to bring a small offering.
“It makes me feel like it’s a small thing that I can do,” Gervasio, a passionate advocate for gun control, said of the art project.
“I just have felt powerless, so for me I was thrilled to jump at the opportunity to feel like I could help create something that mattered and spend more time honoring these people like they deserve.”
The murders, 10 days apart in May, both involved 18-year-olds with semi-automatic assault-type rifles.
Ten Black people were gunned down at a Buffalo supermarket on May 14. An avowed white supremacist who livestreamed some of the killings has been charged with homicide.
On May 24, 19 students and two teachers were slain at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. Border Patrol officers killed the shooter, bypassing state and local authorities who had waited outside the unlocked classroom door for 74 minutes.
Lekberg and her team used cardboard from her bakery to create cut-outs for the victims’ portraits. Each portrait has a unique frame style.
“It was so magical to me,” said Lekberg, who studied to be an artist before pursuing her culinary career. “I just thought it was really moving.”
Gervasio carefully selected the flowers for the altar. “Marigolds are the flowers that are used in celebrations and are the flower symbol for the Day of the Dead,” said Gervasio.
The Day of the Dead/El Día de los Muertos is a Mexican holiday in which families welcome souls of departed relatives as honored guests.
Tradition says the gates of heaven open at midnight on Oct. 31, enabling spirits of children to reunite with their families on All Saints’ Day, Nov. 1. Spirits of adults are believed to enjoy the same privilege on Nov. 2, All Souls’ Day.
Lekberg and Gervasio want people to look beyond the photographs and welcome the victims of Uvalde and Buffalo into their hearts.
“I don’t want the message to be about politics. It’s just about humanizing the situation,” Gervasio said of the installation.
Lekberg’s Native American heritage includes ancestors from the Oglala Lakota tribe.
“In Lakota teachings, we are all relatives. That is important to me,” said Lekberg.
“Even though the places of the shootings were far away, and I didn’t know the people, I felt like they were my relatives, they were my family, and I felt very connected to their lives. I still feel very comfortable doing a piece for them.”
Lekberg said she was looking forward to Opening the Gates.
“In making the piece, what has been really hard is that you have to look at who died…the piece has to, in the end, be of celebration,” she said. “What I like about this day is the spirits come back and we get to mix with them.”
Morris Arts Executive Director Tom Werder also was anticipating the installation eagerly.
“We’re excited to be a part of this community collaboration and see it as squarely within our mission of building community through the arts,” said Werner.
The community aspect resonates with the artists.
“I think the most important part of doing this piece, the final component, is the people that come and see it,” said Lekberg. “We want people to interact with it, and they are the ones that are going to make the piece come alive.
Plan to go to this moving celebration of lives lost.