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Over the next week or so, I’m going to be dedicating my illustration efforts to a series of images based on the Loteria Mexicana (Mexican Bingo) deck of cards. Borderline Projects is hosting an exhibition featuring work inspired by the iconography, symbolism, themes and style of La Loteria Mexicana at The Observatory in Brooklyn later this year, and they’re currently hosting an open call for submissions. I couldn’t see any particular reason not to take a stab at it, and what better place to start than with Mr. Death himself?

La Loteria is a game similar to Bingo. Only instead of numbers, it uses a deck of cards illustrated with figures that represent everyday objects, plants, animals, mythical creatures and other characters. My guess is it’s a typical card-matching type of dealio, and therefore immediately more boring than almost any modern day means of entertainment. Nonetheless, the iconic cards should be fairly recognizable to many, even if you didn’t previously realize what they were for. The excitement factor of the game might be in the pits, but it was easy to get inspired anyway since the original artwork is so great to begin with.

My contributions will probably not be the most original or interesting tributes to the game’s characters and symbols, but I have a pretty good feeling they will be the most Dedlegish, which isn’t a real word, but neither is Dedleg, so I’m going to run with it.