Tuesday, April 14, 2009

Memento Mori

Memento mori is a Latin phrase meaning "Be mindful of death."

And may be translated as:

"Remember that you are mortal."

"Remember you will die."

"Remember that you must die."

"Remember your death."

This phrase names a genre of artistic creations that vary widely in medium, but which all serve the same purpose to remind people of their own mortality.

I use photography as my main means of creating my own Memento mori these days. Although I have used a wide range of other mediums to express it my entire lifetime.

My newest work is a self portrait series with my bone collection. Some of my favorites, click to see larger versions and the full set:

BONELUST - Self Portrait with Skull of Wild Boar & Domestic Pot-bellied Pig Mix 3

BONELUST - Self Portrait with Huge American Bison SkullBONELUST - Self Portrait with Moose Antler 1BONELUST - Self Portrait with White-tailed Deer Skull 1BONELUST - Self Portrait with Skull of Wild Boar & Domestic Pot-bellied Pig Mix 4

2 comments:

1nfinite zer0 said...

I love this series! Just found your blog through google images. I'm a biologist and have my own cherished stash of bones. They are such powerful symbols of the cycles of life, and I appreciate the honour with which you treat them.

I would like to ask your permission to use the bison skull image in a music video for an industrial electro song I wrote. It's full title is "60 million undead bison want their land back". I'm an amateur, so would be only putting it on youtube with the audio available for download elsewhere, but I'd love to provide back links to your work in return for it's use.

Jana Miller said...

Hi thanks so much!

I think I just emailed you although I'm not positive of your address or even your name.

Please email to discuss this further - jana@gato-ranch.com