ABOUT THE EVENT
The Hotel Bella Muerte is a series of works done to illustrate the story of a ragtag group of hotel occupants that desperately want to escape and get back to their lives. Little do they know that they’re dead and waiting in the afterlife for their souls to be judged and move on. In this world, there are three hotels for souls to be sorted out. One for natural death. One for death inflicted on them by others. Finally, there is a hotel for those who go through with suicide. This group of individuals belonging to the suicide hotel and this is their story.
In order to pull this off and portray each character in different ways, a wide variety of methods was used. Ceramics were used to create the dishware that would be seen in the everyday settings of the hotel during a meal. It is something tangible to place the viewer in the world of the hotel.
Playing with digital media as well as traditional the idea was to become fully immersive in these characters' lives to tell their story and bring awareness to the discussion of suicide. So many individuals are ready to push off suicide as something evil and shameful, but they never consider the circumstances surrounding the individual and their decision to go through with the act. The purpose of this story is to tell people that there is a lot more going on in any one person's life and mind than what you see on the outside.
Capstone Presentation
MEET THE ARTIST
Miranda Brawner
Miranda is a New Media and Visual Arts major at Our Lady of the Lake University and is currently working on her upcoming story the Hotel Bella Muerte that talks about death and the afterlife. This project was created shortly after the passing of her grandfather as a way to cope and tell a story she finds important. She is often referred to as Cupcake or by her pen name cupcakeismyname. She has won a first-place ribbon in the San Diego County Fair for her piece ‘A Mermaids Dream’. She has also been published for her short story “Letters from War” in the Walrus Journal at Northern Virginia Community College. Fantasy, space and occasionally war themes can be found in her work. At a young age she picked up drawing and writing and since then has worked towards being an artist. Having developed a fascination with superheroes and comic books in her teens images of various original character superheroes and villains can be found sprinkled within her artwork and her stories. She has been known to dabble in most if not all fields of art and materials blending Copic marker with ink, colored pencil, watercolor, graphite, charcoal, and acrylic paint. She has also dabbled in wood-burning, sculpture, and calligraphy. Her family is often her source of inspiration from wacky quotes to insane actions she holds her family close to her heart.
