Mixed media on canvas
24″ x 24″
Memento Mori is dedicated to the people of Japan, inspired by photographs taken of the devastation after the earthquake and tsunami. In them, I was startled to notice again and again, the gates to Buddhist shrines were the only things that remained. The gates are called Torii and they are meant to mark the transition ‘from the profane to the sacred’.
A memento mori (L. remember your mortality) is an image that serves as a reminder of death, part of a tradition in art dating back to antiquity.
Some of the media used in some areas of this piece are impermanent so as all things, the work will change in an unpredictable way.