Baltimore’s own Make Believers team took home an unprecedented second
consecutive prestigious Art award for Los Baltimuertos.
This 6-pilot sculpture is a Baltimore vision of the Day of the Dead (Día de Los Muertos) as celebrated in Mexico. Those who have
passed on are remembered with shrines of fruit, flowers, and gifts.
The wagon honors Baltimore’s Arabbers—vendors who drove fruit and vegetable carts for over a century,
although this wagon is drawn by two spectacular skeletal horses.
This is the ninth entry from the team led by
Frank Conlan which has won numerous awards since they began making history with 2002’s The Grape Stompers. In 2009, their Art winner was
Happily Never After.
If you look closely, the rear cart wheels are paddlewheels for the water portion of the race, and black
pontoons loft the cart. The horses provide their own flotation by being constructed of rigid closed-cell foam.
The 2009 Art trophy broke before they got it home; the 2010 trophy didn’t even make it out
of the awards ceremony in one piece. Note to trophy artists: hot glue does not adhere well to glass.
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