Holiday Story: Global Pandemic Necessitates Moment of Reflection
Category Is: Momento Mori
March of 2020 began a surreal chapter in the history of the 2000s and our lives. When it came to the Xmas card, the sister and I were having artistic differences. In hindsight, it turned out for the best, cause we came up with this.
I’d had an idea for awhile to take a painting and insert ourselves into it. Who doesn’t love photoshop! We also decided that the momento mori theme really fit the year.
Momento mori: In essence, take a moment to meditate on life and enhance your perspective. Be grateful for what you have.
Translated more directly: As am I, so will you be or, in another version, remember you too will die.
I started trolling museum painting collections online looking for something in the common domain that I could alter. I came across this piece:
So, there’s kind of a lot going on in that picture besides the two good-looking sisters towards the lower right corner, so I did some cropping and photoshopping, inserting our faces onto those of the sisters.
I also added in some of the momento mori symbols from our own lives.
Symbols
The momento mori theme incorporates several characteristics and symbols that I happen to love:
- Skulls*
- Dutch/Flemish painting^
- Flowers
- Fragility
- Acknowledgement of the ethereal nature of our lives
Besides those two symbols, I also added our other roommates, Amp and Phe. We go nowhere without their say so. #amiright
The Message
To match the feeling of the year, we found a quote matching our theme. We laid that quote over a flower background.
The card came together really nicely. And it reflected how we felt at the end of that year. As I write this, things haven’t changed a lot, except we can go out in public now thanks to the vaccine. So, to future us, we will get through it! Stay in touch.
*Remember when skulls were a goth symbol but then Alexander McQueen started printing and incorporating them into his fashion and all of a sudden those of us who appreciated the details in life were suddenly trending? Yeah. I do :D.
^Dutch and Flemish art is one of my favorite periods of art. Between the lighting (Caravaggio-esque), the still lives (mixes of fruit, flowers, and—you guessed it—skulls), and the sensuality (more secular themes around maximalism), Flemish art slays me.