Old Burial Hill, Marblehead, Massachusetts: Mrs. Susanna Jayne (1776)



"The Susanna Jayne headstone was carved by Henry Christian Geyer. The top part, known as the crown or tympanum, has an unusual shape, although it is obscured by the protective granite now encasing the original stone."

Inscription:

Deposited
Beneath this Stone the Mortal Part
of Mrs. Susanna Jayne, the amiable Wife of
Mr. Peter Jayne, who lived Beloved
and Died Universally Lamented, on
August 8th 1776 in the 45th
Year of her Age.

“Precious in the Sight of the Lord is the Death of his Saints.”

Here Sleeps the precious Dust — She Shines above,
Whose Form was harmony, whose soul was Love.
What were her Virtues? all that Heaven could Spare
What were her Graces? all Divinity Fair.
Mingling with Angels, they admire a Guest,
As spotless Good, and lovely as the Rest.

Gravestone Symbolism
"The Jayne stone features an unusual abundance of symbols. A skeleton, representing Death, is the central figure. It wears a crown of laurels, indicative of victory. In its hands are celestial objects: the moon in one hand and the sun in the other. Behind Death is the scythe it uses to reap its harvest. Encircling Death is a snake, with its tail in its mouth, possibly indicating the neverending nature of eternity. In the upper two corners are winged cherubs, or angels of heaven. In the lower corners are bats of the underworld. The upper panel has an hourglass flanked by bones: Death moves in when time runs out."

from Old Burial Hill

Sensational reference. The whole site is from imagery to wonderfully wierd ligatures etc.

Struggle


I have been thinking a lot about how to make type bump up against my illustrations better. My mentor and teacher, Professor Arnold Bank, known for his singular and definite opinions on things had a dictate. You make your letters with the same tool you do the illustration with. So, pencil drawing, pencil lettering. Music pen lettering>>music pen drawing and so on. How this parlays to type is another thing...unless the illlustrations are like chapbook illustrations or even silhouettes --black and blocky--then black and blocky be the type. If the type is elegant and refined, inspired by the romans, drawn by the angels, elegant line drawings suffice.

However, the type just looks "stuck there". I do admire the way Ludwig Hohlwein integrates and designs the type or in some cases a wonderful hand-drawn script with his work. It seems to flow better with the illustration--incorporating the two versus the whole heres the image and here's the type. This is where the men and boys are distinguished. This takes skill. Bernhart isnt shy either. Nor is Julian Klinger, another poster designer in the early part of the 1900s. Maybe it's because the illustration is more graphic, more amenable to being married to type.

Poster by Ludwig Hohlwein.

Another thought I had the other day was the typographer/designer that is in me needs to take a break. I was randomly drawing some letters for the Happy Healthy Holiday card in a kind of wack job, highly illegible way--think lines broken up with dots and curves etc and all smashed together using a single line pen (a la Steinberg)--having it come out in a Book of Kells-y on crack look. I scanned it into photoshop and randomly began to color it. Interesting process. The result was relatively cool and not in any way pure typography. Maybe the way to crack this typography nut is to forget (or put the pause button on) and try to be more in the world of "automatic drawing" and see what evolves. The less planning, the better.

Illustration Friday entry next...?

Wellspring


It's funny how we all seem to go back to the well, the same well we have been going to since we picked up a pencil and started to draw or think about drawing. In this well are the personal favorite things...topics, images, techniques that are always there whenever a roadblock is there to start the cycle of thinking and wondering. This memento mori thing has been in my well...and never really been tapped the way I am beginning to wail on it. I have always been fascinated with the whole end of chapter thing..death, the death industry, architecture and art, history of traditions and expectations--almost exclusively western culture. I have read books on the subject --and devoured them. I learned to drive in a cemetery near my house as I feared the streets and figured the only people I could really kill were already dead in the Homewood Cemetery. My father was proudly on the board of the oldest cemetery in Pittsburgh, The Allegheny Cemetery, where we would regularly go a visit the family plots and marvel as the bizarre ways that people wanted to memorialize their lives and accomplishments. I love the monuments--particularly the high victorian ones and the family mausoleums. In the Allegheny Cemetery, there are miniature greek and roman temples, Richardson Romanesque bunkers and some beautifully rendered, high camp Egyptian pyramids with gilded and polychrome sandstone columns. There are urns on columns, of course the plethora of angels, even a stone tree with it's limbs sawn off (all sandstone) with the bark all carved with care, the the names in ovals where the limbs used to be saying "Mother", "Father", "Brother"...you get the idea. I love the lettering of any time, the older and odder the better. I love the shapes of the stones (again, the older the better).

Trips to Rhode Island and Massachusetts, Philadelphia and Civil War Battlefields always promised a visit to the cemetery so see the illustrations, the shapes, the lettering the sites. It gave context to the antique. When I was in Italy for 4 months in college, I was taken to numerous cemetetaries--surprised by the above ground graves, the non-parklike settings we are so used to. I reveled in reliquaries and the bones in the cathedrals and churches. Bones in gilded boxes. Bones with fuffly, serious bows and ribbons. Carved stone bones as part of the decor of the spaces. This was a sensibility I couldn't wrap my mid-western head around...but loved. I don't know if I love it as much now...but the sheer oddity is appealing.

This is odd that this is what has leapt up out of the well for me. Maybe it's the contemplation I have been doing about being fifty (soon), maybe its spurred by the work the Avian Flu series promised, or maybe is a direct reaction to the work I have been focused on for my thesis...or at least maybe that reaction is the spur to try some new stuff and get it out. Having this lulu project has been the incentive. Whatever. You poor devils are going to see a bunch on this stuff (so much so, I have made a label for this sort of chat for the blog..so it's not going anywhere fast).

Enough musing.

Off to Cornell this morning to talk with writers and lunch (a treat) with a very interesting scientist who is changing the world by his research and projects he has started that stemmed from his research and travels. The Trumansburg Fair continues. More rides for the teens...more hanging out in adolescent clusters. This is all very important to do.

Will update later.

Put wings on it.


Live from the sketch book. Holiday cards...gone (for now!). Inspiration from the gravestones below. More inspiration..more images.

Missed the Demolition Derby last night. It was just plain too cold, too grey and too humid to really soak it in. All sorts of trashed cars are in the parking lots waiting for the weekend dem derby and possibly the figure eight. I love this stuff. The scene is essentially this: most of trumansburg congregates in the grandstands of the fair ground. Bursting with people. The various sports teams represented by players in uniforms are working the crowd selling candy and cookies to glean as much money before the school year happens. Between the grandstand and the stage is a dirt track that they race horses on etc. On the stage side facing the crowd is the entire fire department in total fire gear with hoses etc. ready to jump on any problem. There are 3-4 tow trucks in tow--at the ready. There are a ton of very important people on the stage who comment, dedicate and recognize. I love it that our local car dealership stands as the sponsor of the event. Perfection.

Within this space are fifty (or so) cars, parked nose to nose. The cars are total art. All the windows are out. All the interiors are stripped out to being a seat and a steering wheel. Some of the roofs have been chopped, some have been lowered to close to the ground etc. Then, the paint jobs are either a spray collage with names/words/ phrases/ the names of the cars...or my favorite kinds (very Mad Max-y) that are matte black with a really primative single letter on the side (lettering beyond great...) with the chopped squished roof. Inside are the drivers who range from young women and men to all sizes and shapes of middle aged men. So, on to the sport. When the sign is given, the drivers pull forward, and go backward...for a long time until someone is too bashed up to move any more. The driver jumps up and out of the front window, climbing to the top and jumping off the car and running off the field of automotive centaurians. Smoke and steam. It is a bit scary thinking of the "what ifs"..but I looooove it.

Horse pull tonight.

Colonial wonderfulness




Holiday illustrations today during this cold, grey day. The big hosta lilies are all opening up to give us a fragrant weekend as soon as this grey week is done.

Am doing a little research on colonial grave markers/ tombstones--something I have loved from way way back. Now, another reason to go there with this Memento Mori project. I love the way the wings are drawn, the crazy and beautiful typographic affects, and the simplicity of the skulls. I am going to go down this road a little in my notebooks. The ever wonderful Edward Gorey is very derivative of this work...and so to go to the source gives me permission to ramp it up a little beyond the limited stuff for the Day of the Dead. Gravematters.com is a tremendous resource.

Am outputting images for the SPCA show. Possibilities to show dogs/pets at the SPCA proper. Could be another opportunity to get the work out there.

More later...(dreaming of willow trees and urns and skulls)>>

textures and patterns from the moleskine snippets






These are a selection of patterns created from 4 sharpie illustrations in my moleskine done this a.m. with coffee after the blog entry. This speedo pattern approach was spurred by Roger DeMuth's offhanded comment that he could create 700 differerent backgrounds in a week...which got me puzzling about how he could could so optimistically declare such a thing with such confidence. If he can, I can...and you know in less than an hour on the computer, I did 24 of them. So, with a few more tries at this, I might take him mano a mano on this one. It is fun...and the small tile I have shown is one of the isolated graphics that were used in this progression. More tomorrow.

Memento Mori


Memento mori is a Latin phrase that may be freely translated as "Remember that you are mortal," "Remember you will die," or "Remember your death". It names a genre of artistic creations that vary widely from one another, but which all share the same purpose, which is to remind people of their own mortality.

A showstopper, eh?

Memento Mori embraces art from the classical times to today...with some of the highlights for me being the wonderful woodcuts of skeletons and skulls engaged in all sorts of high jinx that their former selves engaged in. Others include the high victorian use of skulls, winged skeletons, the hourglass to suggest that "time's a wasting.." Wiki refers to public clocks as a venue to suggest that death is to be remembered:

Timepieces were formerly an apt reminder that your time on earth grows shorter with each passing minute. Public clocks would be decorated with mottos such as ultima forsan ("perhaps the last" [hour]) or vulnerant omnes, ultima necat ("they all wound, and the last kills"). Even today, clocks often carry the motto tempus fugit, "time flies." Old striking clocks often sported automata who would appear and strike the hour; some of the celebrated automaton clocks from Augsburg, Germany had Death striking the hour. The several computerized "death clocks" revive this old idea. Private people carried smaller reminders of their own mortality. Mary Queen of Scots owned a large watch carved in the form of a silver skull, embellished with the lines of Horace.

We are talking day of the dead, puritan paintings and gravestones,Holbein and victoriana...even the Masons and secret societies use this hook as part of their art or activities. It feels right for the now of our failing country, our dying and wounded soldiers, the crisis of man in emergencies, the daily reminders of cancer and AIDS--giving it a tongue, a language somehow makes sense to me.

I think this may be the hook for the skull book--it has real legs.

Tried to figure out the whole Lulu book deliverable with their website and still feel a bit fuzzy about the bleeds and gutters, spreads in the books or single pages>> Today I think a phone call is merited.

Need to work on holiday cards today. Count down to fabulousness.

Pondering the Lulu Book


I have been thinking about this assignment I don't have to do...but plan on doing. I want to do a valentine book--cause it's a good idea, works as a mini promotional thing..and its saleable. It may take a little time...but worthy of having for a February goal. So, there is one. Another, is to take the existing dog pictures, create some spot illustrations..and layout the dog biscuit cookbook I wanted to do. Again, good promotional piece, art is mainly done, and it's saleable to individuals...and if I can make it...to possible bigger audience that may want to distribute it under their logotype. So, could represent a tiny bit of cash to the bottomline...not the nickle and dime stuff.

Then, there is the automatic writing--which right now is manifested in wildly decorated letters and numbers and skulls. In the last week I did about 5 skulls in the time creases of the day between jobs, during phone calls, while dinner is cooking. They just seem to spring up...So, there may be a book of these skulls--perhaps entitled "momentus mori"---Take them into the computer...see how I can tweak them...or are they just strong enough to be by themselves--some negative,some positive? Instead of limiting myself, I should let this thing run its course and see what happens. I am thinking that regardless of what happens, this idea of working toward a book completes a body of work in a nice way. Maybe not a final use thing...but an interesting use of both my abilities as a designer and the output of work as an illustrator. I could see a portfolio of these books. I could also see partnering with a printer once one of these was done, to co-promote our wares...much in the way of the good old days and the expensive and rich printed little publications on things from tin toys to walks in nature. Lusciously printed, precious designs. And partnerships with entities that could benefit from producing these things could be good. All seems attainable...

Live from SU on the subject of transcripts and diplomas:

"I have all of the orange folders, but haven't had a chance to go through them yet. If all of the paperwork is in order, I should be able to certify your degree within a couple of weeks. The actual diploma takes six weeks or so to arrive, but you can get a copy of your degree bearing transcript anytime after the certification by contacting the registrars office. Go here: http://registrar.syr.edu/students/transcripts.html for instructions.

I plan on waiting until Sept 10 to check with the registrar on the transcript. Need to do that to get further in my file with Hartford. I do not want to be tweaked by this group and plan to be very pointed in my verbal and written communications with them as there are former students that still are awaiting their diplomas. We did pay for this service...now all SU has to do is DO IT.

I am knotted up about being a speaker at the "Seminar" the graphic design, advertising and illustration students are required to attend. I am speaking in late November...and feel that once I just get rolling on putting a deck together and some words around the deck, it should be fine. I was told my story is about being a graphic designer in a small town...I think that story may morph into not about technology, the use of pdfs and fed ex--but the path of work, the type of work and thinking and how more is possible today than ever before. Another point is about always asking and learning. That is the key to growth, happiness and bettering the work. Andrew Carnegie's motto, "My Heart is in the Work" may surface. I just need to start the project and see what happens. The illustration segment from Whitney Sherman's request to see work should help as a starting point.

More illustration today. The pumpkin needs to be finalized and have type added in. The holiday card has resurfaced. The holly is still in the running. The eight other finalized illustrations are out (reason to get a stock thing happening with the ispot), and the client has put forth 4 directions they want to see developed by the end of the week. The Myers Weinberg (see last week's post) logotype is moving forward...add type/take other things away...but the illustration is going out there...

Small moves. More later

weekend antics

We attended a lovely 50th birthday yesterday. In one corner were the neighbors, another, all the beautiful, unselfconscious 15 year olders (I wish that was my world) and the other schamart, smart people tasting elegant wines and talking about recent an not so recent history like young geezers. We met the most amazing people from a known expert on "Bubble theory" and his engaging, interesting and smart wife who lives in the world of philosophy and semiotics (all way behind this low end IQ Q), a lovely man who makes his living with the buying and selling of fabulous vintage trailers/campers, to those who can really throw and target the right dart. The snapshot I carry in my head is peeking into a window and seeing my rather young, 6'.5" son wearing a post-it-note on his head declaring he is Britney Spears--and that he needs to figure that out according to no end to high school pulchritude....With this crowd, youth is not entirely wasted.

We saw "Becoming Jane"--those in the clan that have P&P memorized, we were crying. Those who didn't were asking their mom to see her indiglo watch to calibrate the time. That is the review. We LOVE jane.

Made a mess of food from the bank of leftovers here. Am feeling like the queen of creativity to empty dishes to make things people want to eat. Depression aesthetics..which, to be honest, I think is a tremendous thing. We shouldn't lose sight of the bounty we live in and on. It is appalling we take so much for granted.

R. goes to hot and fun Miami tomorrow. We are a tiny bit jealous...but high 90s with humidity goes WAAAAAAAAAAAAAy beyond the call of duty. Deceber beckons with Art Basel Miami. And, I am not being the "wife" and staying home. K+A can handle the grandparents...plus, they now have CELL phones.

Did anyone register the fabulousity of the offerings from the Penultimate Apple?? The wonder of Iphoto and how it will change your world? I am frothing from the mouth. Iphone can wait until they figure out the more memory, less other stuff... We changed to AT+T with the express reason that we could change....

when we...

wanted to...

what a world we live in?!!

More tomorrow.

more pumpkins


2 color job...pms 130 and black with screentints of the black and the goldenrod. Still working on it...but its almost cooked for now.

I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion. I would rather ride on earth in an ox cart, with a free circulation, than go to heaven in the fancy car of an excursion train and breathe a malaria all the way.

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862),
in The Writings of Henry David Thoreau, vol. 2, p. 41, Houghton Mifflin (1906).

I am such a squirrel


Drawing skulls of Saint Valentine like mad. Spent the better part of last evening working on a pointy one and a freaky, out of proportion one. Poor Saint Valentine...with his skull on the altar surrounded by roses in a state of dying. The smell I can conjure up of dust, italian chiese, and the wierdness the land of italo catholics surrounds itself with (which I adore) of medals, and smells, and symbols and high and low art...all in one place. Poor R. I think he thinks I have totally cracked. But the lure of ink, the line and the sharp and brush versions of pitt pens beckon. My sirens calling....not to dive deep into the water to drown...but to dive into the ouiji board of impulses and see what the "automatic writing" (as in the Shaker ladies that did that sort of stuff with their dreams) provides. There is a thrill to not knowing what your hand connected to your head will produce. Probably not good enough for prime time..but none the less, relevant to me. I have no idea which cubbie this stuff comes from. All I know is that is a rich and deep vein.

Am excited by the offerings the local Ink Shop has to offer. I sense I may (and possibly K or A or Both) may indulge. Here is a tip of the hat to the brilliant Gary Kelley--and the inspiration that both he and Whitney Sherman provided for us to think about getting the work out there in different deliverables than paintings and jpgs.

The work continues. I am possessed by octopus (octopii) in addition to the skull-duggery. Wow. Are they wierd or what?

LA over Xmas....the home team is ecstatic.

gleaned from the pile



Here are two looks at possibly how the images of the artists bump up against the type etc. One can be used in its linked state, and then for the show, pulled apart and possibly used as output on scrim banners to add texture to a show of work smaller than a bread box. The other (the janus approach) can be used as a banner but with the heads together...albeit, we could give them art for them to be pulled apart as well with quieter type that may seem more museum-y. I think I ned a little more work on both of the heads...but this is a "sketch" --and the things that make my hair stand on end...isn't noticed by the client...so I will tweak later. Good chance they will take one of these.

Back from an hour down/hour back/ hour in between to have K and A's teeth drilled, filled and painted. Am working on 3 more postcards for a client. One might be a picture made by me...the others would be a type/illo or type/photo modified thing. I would love to get them off my desk by Friday. Things cranking up a bit here... Need to pencil in the SOI LA and SOI NYC shows to make sure I get something in for those shows.

May be giving some illustration work to a senior at SU who has a nice touch that I feel my dog client will cotton to...and see what she comes up for this small job. It should be fun. Lots of potential with this client. Just need to be strategic and value added as much as possible. Lots of fun work.