But first…
For this instalment of the series I’d like to provide a little backstory so that you might understand why the Memento Mori pair mean so much to me. (If you’re only interested in how the art was made, just scroll down a bit. 😉)
In 2001 my then-boyfriend and I were planning the drive home from Illinois to Alberta, and bandying about ideas of which route we’d take. Given his season had ended earlier than hoped and we had some extra time, I suggested we take a ‘slight’ detour and hit New Mexico.
Sunset at White Sands National Monument, NM
May 2001
Neither of us had ever been, nor did we have any idea what we’d find there, but we were excited for the adventure. We left Peoria and drove roughly 1,000 miles to the bottom, southeast corner of NM where we would begin our quest with a night ‘camping’ in White Sands National Monument: we had a bottle of wine, bag of pistachios, couple of sandwiches, and a tent - what could go wrong. 😅 We spent a little more than a week meandering the backroads and both fell in love with the place.
When planning my pieces for the Worthy Imposters show I’d been focused on including a portrait element in each but, mid-way through the process, I had a dream wherein I was sitting on a bench outside an adobe home in what I believed was the small pueblo of Abiquíu, which we’ve visited on a few trips. It was a nudge reminding me that my whole goal with this show was to really lean into being untethered to any constraints, self-imposed or otherwise. With that, I set about creating a piece that would honour my love for NM whilst paying homage to one of its most famous: Georgia O’Keeffe.
It is her art from the latter half of her life, after she moved from NYC to Abiquíu, that most resonates with me. Her paintings that include both skulls and florals evoke a thoughtfulness about impermanence, the dance between what’s considered ‘ugly’ and beautiful, all while conveying a deep peace… a sense of peace that I too feel in those hills.
“When I got to New Mexico, that was mine. As soon as I saw it, that was my country. I’d never seen anything like it before, but it fitted to me exactly. It’s something that’s in the air, it’s just different. The sky is different, the stars are different, the wind is different.”
Making the art…
Given I didn’t have a picture of a front facing skull on hand, I bought one on line. I then used a black and white photo I’d taken many years ago of the underside of a handful of daisies, which I used Photoshop to convert to turquoise. I then extracted blooms from another two of my own images and layered them onto the skull; the firewheel bloom was taken in Bandelier National Monument in 2015, and is also the star in another fine art piece titled Bandelier Texture.
Memento Mori in Turquoise / NM x O’Keeffe
16×24 on wood
Some time lapsed after completing the original Memento Mori before two things occurred to me:
first, while there is a through line between each piece of art in the collection, this one was a bit of a lone-wolf in that it didn’t showcase a human subject
and, secondly, I really loved making it and thought it (and I) deserved for it to have a partner.
Enter, Memento Mori in Mexican Sage.
Memento Mori in Mexican Sage / NM x O’Keeffe
12×12 on wood
The problem of not having a good skull shot continued, and so I used AI to create one, and then also used it to create a floral crown. The skull I liked but the flowers needed some retouching to get ‘just right’ (I’d rather use PS than burden our planet with a gazillion iterations from AI)… it was tedious, with many iterations, but I really love how they turned out. I then began layering… I knew I wanted to incorporate this beautiful turquoise door I’d shot in Taos in 2012, both to help tie it to the other piece so they could be hung together. Even though O’Keeffe’s works, that inspired these pieces, often employed a more stark backdrop; I did want to incorporate her tendency to employ colours and scenes from the New Mexican landscape. With that I found a shot I’d taken in Santa Fe in 2015 of Mexican Sage and another of what I believe is Queen Anne’s Lace, that is also commonly found in NM.
When pondering the best medium for the finished art I landed on wood… I feel like the organic nature ties in beautifully with the art, and was thrilled to see how the grain gives the colours a certain personality that would be missing otherwise.
The Worthy Imposters collection is available for purchase; I also encourage you to reach out if I can be of help - perhaps you love something but need it in a different size or medium - let’s chat!