Memento Mori

I've been reading about Victorian Gothic and death rituals during Poe's era, because it was a concept that his writing is riddled with. I'm still unsure whether he was romanticising about death, or whether he himself was terrified of that unknown end.

One of the Victorian mourning rituals I'd been reading into was MEMENTO MORI Post Mortem Photography. Since infant mortality rates were high due to untreated diseases and poor living conditions, many families would have to say goodbye to their loved ones. At the start of the 19th century, photography was getting more affordable (for the first time, it would cost less money than getting a portrait painted), so families would immortalise their deceased forever in one final photo.

Sometimes the dead's eyes would be shut, as though sleeping, and sometimes the eyes would be painted on, to give the impression of 'life'.

Wetherby Carboot Sale, Sunday 31st July:

Rummaging through a box of postcards, I found some pretty ones for Bronson and Swanson, but couldn't resist picking up this Victorian family photograph. It's so personal and delicate, I couldn't leave those souls to sit in a cardboard box for 20p.

On closer inspection, I think there's something about this photograph... SPOT THE DEAD CHILD.

Propped up in front of his father, with his eyes pointing in the wrong direction.

I could be wrong.

But I love the dark creepiness of this mystery.

Poe loved a mystery.

Nest Egg

Summer in the Stelling household means CLEANING, SORTING and GETTING RID.

Going through old toys and clothes, chucking out everything you once loved to make room for more junk.

Today our plan of attack was to trim back the Ivy bush that's taken over the fence and is running wild into next door's garden. It's an old bush so it's really strong and firmly rooted INTO the wood.

But whilst we tackled the monsterbush, we found an abandoned nest. It hasn't been used for a few years, but I know that blackbirds (whose family this nest probably belongs to) do love to revisit old homes and come back year after year, so I carefully took photos before putting it back in what remains of the bush for them to use again next season.

I just find it incredible that a tiny BIRD made THIS! So clever and beautiful. My attempt is so awful in comparison. Birds are intelligent and creative animals. Poe was intrigued by Charles Dickens' pet Raven, but did he already have a fondness for birds and crows? Was it something about them as a species or just as a symbol?

The issue I'm having is that nothing I DRAW can show what I am FINDING, picking up, collecting around this topic. I'm DISCOVERING and learning but I'm not drawing. I'm looking and then making. Looking and researching further. Reading, then going out exploring.

I seem to work in a different way to most illustrators but that doesn't mean that I'm not an illustrator.

This may sound like a GCSE Media Studies analysis (jokes on me), but the nest ITSELF could be a metaphor for Poe. He too was untamed, wild and fragile. 

5 Quotes

'The world always seems brighter when you've just made something that wasn't there before.'
“Everybody has a secret world inside of them. I mean everybody. All of the people in the whole world, I mean everybody — no matter how dull and boring they are on the outside. Inside them they've all got unimaginable, magnificent, wonderful, stupid, amazing worlds... Not just one world. Hundreds of them. Thousands, maybe.”  ― Neil Gaiman, The Sandman, Vol. 5: A Game of You
“I lived in books more than I lived anywhere else.” ― Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane

“But how can you walk away from something and still come back to it?” ― Neil Gaiman, Coraline

5 Motifs

'Home'
Family
Alone
Quirkiness

5 Characters

Coraline
Bod (Graveyard Book)
Other Mother/Other Father
Sandman

5 Locations

Cottage
'The Other House'
Woods/Forest
Graveyard
Vortex/Time Travel

5 Pieces of Info

???
Nothing really significant???

VINCENT

Tim Burton influenced by the Gothic Romanticism of Edgar Allan Poe

evident in this short, Vincent. He mentions Poe and uses poetic verse in a similar manner.

Symbolism - the black cat, shadows - conventional features of the Gothic genre.

Creepy visualisation of death and undead characters. Similar tone and topics.

Spookiness not horror

Speaking to the Level 6s, it sounds like we might be doing some animation later on in the module? That would be brilliant and I would love to make something like this! Telling Poe's stories in a creepy, dark way...

Nevermore

Some things I've been making!

Nest and eggs. Quite life-like but too small. The nest isn't great but the eggs I'm happy with for a first attempt. Will make them bigger next time and playing with the idea of hiding things inside them. How can I make them crack open??? A hinge?

Crow: head is much too rounded and paper mache doesn't work well on birds... I need something with a lighter texture, maybe fabric or actual feathers.

Would love the beak to open.

Button eyes very Neil Gaiman but not very Poe. Too kitsch. Not spooky.

I enjoy taking photos of them with my cats and seeing how they react to the objects. Do they believe it? Do they think it's real? Does it scare them? How do they interact?

NEST

Made some eggs! And a nest.

Nest is messy and glue everywhere. Maybe spraymount would work better? Too small for a crow nest I think.

Eggs are solid clay - would be cool to hollow them out and have shells with insides. Air drying clay works well because it naturally cracks and dries, gives a similar look to that of an eggshell.

Surprise eggs... put something inside them? Crack them open? Hide them in trees around Leeds/Ripon...

Pleased with the colour but the brown speckling is a little intense - probably need more subtle layers and white speckles too. CLEAN YOUR HANDS BEFORE THE PHOTO IS TAKEN. It looks a bit gross ew.

Crow Spotting

Looking out for crows in the garden. Some finds:

Inspector of Cemetries: Ripley All Saints Church & Graveyard

ULTIMATE GOTH-ING: Gravedwelling.

I have a weekly pass to get me anywhere between Ripon and Harrogate for free until Tuesday so I decided to use it today to go to Ripley on the 36 bus.

Twee little town - always think it looks like cardboard. IT'S NOT REAL.

It's actually a lot bigger and more interesting than I thought. Historical. Quaint, but busy (award winning ice-cream and free entry to the castle on weekdays. also brilliant weather today)

although the graveyard was eerily quiet.

So close to everything else in Ripley that was bustling, yet I was the only person around.

Old, beautiful graves. Peaceful.

Crows everywhere. Swallows too.

Erosion and decay.

Scratchy film is pretty and dreamy.

Crows kept flying off so I struggled to get photos of them. Think I need to find out what they eat and force them to be my friends. My room is in the attic and the crows hang out on rooftops in my neighbourhood so if I hang out of my skylight with crowfeed maybe I can entice a handsome old crow into my life.

You won't bloody believe it but... I FOUND A CROW FEATHER TOO. Weird weird weird. Honestly Poe, it's getting really strange now. Stop haunting me.

Just laying on top of a fallen-over headstone. 

Laura Makabresku

https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7520/buddyicons/48741339@N08_r.jpg?1468581059

Reminds me of Tim Walker

Fairy Tale

Tragedy, romance and gothic

soft film, nostalgic and dark.

storytelling like Poe

mysterious too

Not sure how she creates these images - I hope the animals are real because it would spoil the magic charm of them if they were photoshopped

I want to believe that she actually has this powerful connection with the animals to be able to pose and photograph them

EDIT: I have discovered that the animals she uses are mostly dead and stuffed.

All sorts of animals and subjects, but I was most interested in these birds.

'Sanatorium for birds'

Prefer the more ambiguous imagery, where only snippets of the human form can be seen. Some of her photos appear very staged and dramatic: involving blood, tears etc.

http://orig05.deviantart.net/3dfa/f/2016/033/e/c/heart_of_the_forest_by_laura_makabresku-d9qa3z2.jpg

Polish artist, interested in poetry and literature which I think is translated through her art

Similar themes to Poe: death, madness

http://orig04.deviantart.net/25ec/f/2016/070/7/e/birds_by_laura_makabresku-d9up1e2.jpg

Uses herself in her photos because the stories are personal to her. other people don't 'belong in her imagination'

Schizophrenia - isolation and fears

http://beautifulsavage.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/lauramakabresku-lovers-2015.jpg

Uses old film cameras to shoot - digital has no magic

Quoth the Raven

FINDINGS

Just a normal day, walking to the bus stop... and I come across this feather. Plodding along, thinking 'yes, oooh, a very unusual and pretty feather... but don't pick it up Jay. No, don't do it... that's weird. Just leave it... No. Put it down... Oh.' and I picked it up and put it in my sketchbook.

As soon as I got home I looked in my bird book and LO, BEHOLD! IT'S A JAY FEATHER.

Now, I've never seen a Jay before.

And they're pretty uncommon around here. They're not easy to spot, so a feather is an unusual find.

AND IT JUST HAPPENED TO BE THERE. FOR ME TO FIND. Me. Jay. Jay found the Jay feather.

If this isn't a sign for me to run with Poe then I don't know what is.

Honestly.

It's fate.

It's so beautiful. When searching it online, the internet throws all these sites at me about 'shamanistic meanings'. Apparently there's a lot of mystique and folklore around crows and crow feathers.

http://www.perspectivesmagazine.sk/news/ravens-and-crows-in-mythology-folklore-and-religion/

Thinking of crows, I'm reminded of Knaresborough and the RAVEN LADY there. She stands by the castle with some huge ravens and tells stories about them. Perhaps I'll go and visit them!