Memento Mori

Memento Mori is Latin for "Remember you must die" or "Remembrance of death." It's occurrence in Western art is pervasive from far past to near present.

In this drawing the skull is in the distance with the closer hour glass rapidly exhausting its sand. And yet the drawing is close cropped, non-revealing of the future to come.

This drawing is a doodle-drawing made of repeated passes of doodles to create it. I like the juxtaposition of the casual process against the serious subject.

"Memento Mori" 2009, charcoal on paper, 17"x16.75"

Process Drawing

This drawing was made using only four colored pencils: cyan, magenta, yellow and black. The colors blend visually to create the various colors and tones apparent in the drawing.

Also I drew it only using curly-q doodles, the kind we often absent mindedly make during idle time.

Here I am investigating how four color printing, known as CMYK, uses three colors and black to create realistic photos.

Click on the photo for a large image to better see how this drawing was made.


"Denise" 2009, Colored pencil on paper, 23x17,