♪ >> An ofrenda is a sacred space dedicated in your home, that you would place your flowers, your candles, your loved ones' pictures.

It's a sacred space that you create, and you go there for lifting up your prayers or giving thanks or honoring the lives of people you love.

>> Most folks keep old yellowed photos of their family's ancestors tucked away in a dusty photo album.

But Fort Wayne artist Emily Guerrero proudly showcases her heritage all over the living room amid bright colors and rich textures.

>> It is about praying for people who you love, into guardianship around them, sending them the energy and the protection, but it's mostly about the celebration of life because these people who we love, family and friends, they come into our lives with their gifts and their talents and their happiness and their hardships, and we love and support one another.

We celebrate who they were and what they accomplish and what they gave to us.

>> Emily designs large-scale tributes to the past through ofrendas, ornate displays of one's family heritage that weave historical photos and heirlooms with intricate and colorful artwork.

It's a rich tradition that surrounds le Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead, an ancient practice from Mexico, that Emily first learned from her grandmother when she was just a little girl.

Her ofrenda was right next to her bed, and it had the candles, and it had pictures of family.

And she had little saints and her rosary and candles.

And she -- I would ask questions, like, what is the water for?

She'd say, the ancestors journey far.

They're thirsty.

What is the salt for?

It's for purification.

What is the candle for?

To light the way.

She always had an ofrenda in her home.

And the pictures changed, the flowers changed, but it was always there.

And I'm so grateful to be a storyteller carrying the stories and the traditions forward that my grandmother whispered to me as a little 3-year-old girl while she was braiding my hair.

And that was my earliest memory ever of her and her home, and she was such an important part of my life.

The Dia de los Muertos is much more elaborate and many more traditions happen here, but on the day to day, we do have candles lit, pictures of loved ones, flowers, raising them up during times of grief.

We give thanks for celebrations, new births, new babies.

We light a candle to give thanks for life, the breath of life.

>> Art has always been a part of Emily's life, but she spent much of her early career in the business world, until a near fatal car accident, which compelled her to embrace a full-time career as a folk artist and storyteller.

>> If you want to make it at home, so you can pick yellow, blue, red, which you would like?

>> I realized that my life was spared, and I made a promise that night that I would live with joy and love, that I would create art.

I had to recreate myself.

Art healed me.

What gave me joy was creating art, and I quit thinking about the pain because I was creating, and it helped me to heal.

>> Do you want to pick a color?

>> Sure.

>> Okay.

>> Emily's ofrendas, which she often creates with her granddaughter Avery, retrace her family's history back more than seven generations.

>> Life is a circle.

There's a beginning, the breath of life; there's the end, the last breath.

And Indigenous people honor that.

We know.

We don't fear it.

We teach our children the importance of the circle of life, and that we do have a beginning and end.

>> I'm from Fort Wayne, originally from Chicago, but I've been living here for over 27 years.

>> Today, Emily proudly shares these rich traditions through large public art displays, school group activities, and community festivals.

>> I want all children to feel the celebration of their ancestors and the good traditions.

Everybody has something to bring forward, to gift to the world and to share and celebrate with one another.

It's an honor to come into a classroom or a museum and be a storyteller for those who are wanting to hear and listen.

I can bring that to the classroom, and it isn't a person telling my story.

I get to tell my story.

I feel like it's an obligation that I have to my family past, my family present, and my family future, because I'm talking about seven generations out that I know are coming and some day will meet me through a story and my artwork.