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: