The theme of memento mori presents a visual reminder of the ephemerality of human existence and is an artistic tradition that dates back to antiquity.
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the story of the memento mori
In August of 2020 I found myself walking through the most charming and inviting cemetery that I have had the pleasure of discovering. My introduction to this place of bones and lives past came about as a result of the birth of my granddaughter. When my daughter-in-law went into labor, I was on dog-walking duty and this particular cemetery was a daily destination. I found myself listening to the breeze and the movement of branches and leaves; wondering about the lives and stories of those whose bones rest beneath the ground that I was walking upon.
Simultaneously, I experienced a shift in the work that I was creating in my studio. I had recently come across a series of vintage illustrations created to be used as advertisements for the Antikamnia Chemical Company. The story of the Antikamnia company is an interesting one unto itself, but what I was more interested in was my own curious feelings around the strangely clad skeleton figures. I felt compelled to extricate them from paper. I began creating a variety of collaged scenes through the layering of frames and images of different objects and placing the bone people inside moments of everyday living and life. This resulted in a growing collection which I called “The Other Side”.
Time continued to pass and so did the daily reminders that for all living things life includes death. They are inextricably linked. The numbers of those lost to this pandemic continued to climb. The sweet canine who I had first walked with among these rows closed his eyes upon his last day; as did another sweet familial companion who had gifted all whom she encountered with important reminders and lessons of love, vulnerability and indomitable spirit. I continued using sharp razors to extricate the images of skeletons from paper and reinsert them into new scenes of life.
One night as I was about to lay my head on my pillow, I found myself wondering what artists before me had worked with the images of skeletons. I consulted the great internet oracle and quickly discovered the term Memento Mori. In short, a Memento Mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’ and is an artwork designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and the shortness and fragility of human life.
Underneath our clothing, the color of our skin, our gender, our familial ties, our lived experiences, and all the other myriad of ways in which we claim and establish our identities lie our bones. Bones that seemed to be pointing us toward our shared humanity and the quintessential way in which we are alike. More than anytime before I found myself aware of how short our time on this earth actually is and how the time we are given is truly our most precious gift. Every atom of calcium in our bones was created inside a star before the earth was born. We began as the dust of exploding stars. How magnificent and precious is a life that begins as the last evolutionary stages of a massive star? The poetry and beauty of the life and world that we have been given make me weep.
I have run out of the vintage bone people images that spurred such curiosity and creativity in me. Now new bones have found their way to me. They are different. They are without clothing and there is no way to discern who they may have been in their individual identities. I do not think of them in the same way. They are not stuck in the past or pieces that have been lost. I am placing these within scenes that tell stories of how we are all connected. They shall remember their dance among the stars. They shall entwine and share stories with nature and mystery. They will be stories of finding our way home and of finding our parts, purpose and each other.
Simultaneously, I experienced a shift in the work that I was creating in my studio. I had recently come across a series of vintage illustrations created to be used as advertisements for the Antikamnia Chemical Company. The story of the Antikamnia company is an interesting one unto itself, but what I was more interested in was my own curious feelings around the strangely clad skeleton figures. I felt compelled to extricate them from paper. I began creating a variety of collaged scenes through the layering of frames and images of different objects and placing the bone people inside moments of everyday living and life. This resulted in a growing collection which I called “The Other Side”.
Time continued to pass and so did the daily reminders that for all living things life includes death. They are inextricably linked. The numbers of those lost to this pandemic continued to climb. The sweet canine who I had first walked with among these rows closed his eyes upon his last day; as did another sweet familial companion who had gifted all whom she encountered with important reminders and lessons of love, vulnerability and indomitable spirit. I continued using sharp razors to extricate the images of skeletons from paper and reinsert them into new scenes of life.
One night as I was about to lay my head on my pillow, I found myself wondering what artists before me had worked with the images of skeletons. I consulted the great internet oracle and quickly discovered the term Memento Mori. In short, a Memento Mori is a Latin phrase meaning ‘remember you must die’ and is an artwork designed to remind the viewer of their mortality and the shortness and fragility of human life.
Underneath our clothing, the color of our skin, our gender, our familial ties, our lived experiences, and all the other myriad of ways in which we claim and establish our identities lie our bones. Bones that seemed to be pointing us toward our shared humanity and the quintessential way in which we are alike. More than anytime before I found myself aware of how short our time on this earth actually is and how the time we are given is truly our most precious gift. Every atom of calcium in our bones was created inside a star before the earth was born. We began as the dust of exploding stars. How magnificent and precious is a life that begins as the last evolutionary stages of a massive star? The poetry and beauty of the life and world that we have been given make me weep.
I have run out of the vintage bone people images that spurred such curiosity and creativity in me. Now new bones have found their way to me. They are different. They are without clothing and there is no way to discern who they may have been in their individual identities. I do not think of them in the same way. They are not stuck in the past or pieces that have been lost. I am placing these within scenes that tell stories of how we are all connected. They shall remember their dance among the stars. They shall entwine and share stories with nature and mystery. They will be stories of finding our way home and of finding our parts, purpose and each other.
When the Veils Are Thin / Portals & Transits from the Vision Shift Project
