Travel Shrine

I made this little portable shrine to the Virgen de Guadalupe for a friend of mine with whom I spent a summer in Mexico. We lived in a little town in Michoacan called Santa Clara del Cobre. In Santa Clara del Cobre, we lived up on a hill. For the longest time (it seemed to me) there was gunfire every evening down in the village for the Virgen. So every time my friend and I heard the gunfire we raised our fists and said "Go Virgen!" Hence the art for the lid of this project (maybe the gunfire was for the Fiesta de la Virgen del Sagraria? First two weeks of August in Santa Clara).

The Virgen descends from the clouds to the eager crowd of village folk, horses, and cacti (i never saw any cacti in our neck of the woods, but again, that seemed easier than drawing olive trees or something...also less nondescript. Maybe that's this virgin's miracle: when she appeared, even mountainous, wet wooded areas grew saguaros). Why is there a zebra, you ask? Good question...

The case is plastic and used to house the tips for our magnetic force microscope. And yes, all this pieces are made of shrinky dinks.