Fresno artist crafts giant Dia De Los Muertos ofrenda

FRESNO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – A Mexican-American, wood-burning artist in Fresno, helped celebrate Dia De Los Muertos in the greater Tower District on Sunday with a larger-than-life, custom-made ofrenda.

Danielle Cheuvront says she has been wood-burning since about 2013. Since she started over a decade ago, she’s turned her art into a small business, “Ella Es Fuego,”

which means “She is Fire.”

She says she originally picked it up after being told by a doctor that she couldn’t solder while pregnant.

“I was always been really artistic and I will work with clay, work with paint,” Cheuvront said. “I hadn’t really heard of it. I kind of took off that way.”

Once Cheuvront started wood-burning, she says it quickly became an outlet as well as a form of artistic expression.

“Art definitely gets me through a lot of the grieving process of losing someone or feeling their absence.”

On Sunday, she was one of several artists, vendors, and organizations to line Van Ness Avenue near Echo and Weldon avenues. That’s where she showcased her 8-foot-tall wood-burned ofrenda dedicated to her loved ones who have passed away.

“Being Catholic, growing up Catholic, and everyone on my ofrenda being Catholic, I wanted it to feel like a cathedral,” Cheuvront said. “My tias, my great grandparents and my twin brother was on my ofrenda. Those are my people and they were definitely there with me.”

The ofrenda featured traditional elements like food for the dead and cempazuchitl flowers, but also a modern, unique look that Cheuvront says is part of her artistic take on the tradition.

“An ofrenda comes from the heart; it could be traditional, it could be nontraditional,” Cheuvront said. “Your ofrenda makes it yours, your ofrenda comes from your heart.”

Aside from making her own ofrenda, Cheuvront says she’s had a chance to create original pieces for other people’s ofrendas. Each art piece that Cheuvront gives away or sells through her business is her customers, “taking a piece of my heart,” according to Cheuvront.

“It could be a small spoon or it could be a 4-foot piece,” Cheuvront said. “But for someone to say, ‘Hey, thank you for making this for me. Look at all these loved ones that they’re going to come admire your art when they cross,’ I’m touched by them even more.”