Just when you were about burned out on the orange and black trick-or-treat build-up, along comes a colorful, cultural celebration of the dead.

Dia de Muertos is not about green plastic hands sticking out of front lawns to scare the wee ones.  It’s about an explosion of color that celebrates the spirits of the deceased. 

Pierce County Aids Foundation altar on display at the Tacoma Art Museum.

Right now, the Tacoma Art Museum features a Day of the Dead preview in the form of a huge tapete, a beautifully colorful painting of sand on the lobby, as well as altars by Centro Latino and the Pierce County Aids Foundation.

The thing about the Dia de Muertos is that it joyfully celebrates a situation â€" death â€" that much of Western culture shrouds with sorrow and a heavily bleak curtain.  Sure, the altars at the TAM set forth some sobering images, but the grade-school diorama-esque treatment of the subject elevates the lighter and irreverent sides of death.

You can be a part of the Dia de Muertos celebration for free at TAM on Sunday Nov. 5, or you can take part in the procession of the dead and enjoy the fruits of local artistic labors on Nov. 2 on Sixth Avenue, along with cocoa and sweetbreads in heated tents courtesy of the soon-to-be Sixth Avenue restaurant Masa, an upscale Mexican restaurant by the Asado folks.

Can’t wait that long? Go to the Sixth Avenue Liquor Store and look through the window at the Johnny Cash altar, see Susan Cowan's homage to lost fisherman and tapete art in the window of the Sixth Ave Art Gallery, or go to www.myspace.com/el_zokalo">El Zokalo and the What? Shoppe to grab yourself some colorful Dia de Muerto art. Create your own art, bone up on the subject, and be a part of it. â€" Jessica Corey-Butler