when she ran away to the circus

SUGAR SKULL

"Molded from a sugar paste, then decorated with icing, glitter and foil, these skulls often are placed on altars. The sugar represents the sweetness of life, and the skull represents the sadness of death."

Sugar skulls are used within the celebrations of Mexican tradition; 'Day of the dead' or 'All souls day'.

Sugar skulls have become popular for tattoo designs, often a way of representing a normally very dull and morbid symbol in a much more decorative colorful way. Adorning the skull with embellishment and color adds life and beauty to the skeleton - in the painting below I have created a clown themed sugar skull. The blood red paint appears almost as if it is bleeding from the roses adding edge or a dark feel to the image.