Found on the Mortuary Floor

We handed out index cards to our audience to use for the suggestion box. #DeathPositive #posyfilledpockets #suggestionbox

A photo posted by Posy-Filled Pockets (@posyfilledpockets) on Feb 15, 2016 at 7:01pm PST

An Gorta Mor by guest blogger Shannon Haire

It takes a lot of suffering to be ranked among one of history’s worst tragedies and biggest losses of life.

Photo by Shannon Haire - Used with Permission

The famine that hit Ireland in 1845 has that unfortunate distinction. ‘An Gorta Mor’ (the Great Hunger) decimated the Irish population and over a five year period 1.5 million people starved to death or died of hunger-related causes. Another two million fled Ireland in order to escape that fate, and the native population hasn’t recovered since. It is estimated that there are more Irish people spread throughout the world than there are in Ireland itself, and that has been the case ever since the Great Famine began.

Photo by Chmee2

Ireland is a mecca for memorials, historical places, and public sculpture, but few are as somber and potent as the Famine Memorial on the banks of the River Liffey in Dublin. The memorial sculpture was created by Rowan Gillespie and unveiled in 1997. It consists of emaciated men, women, and children trudging along the banks of the river, with various expressions of sadness, despair, and resignation. The horrifying bronze sculptures also include a starving dog walking behind the people. It is one of the most photographed public art pieces in all of Ireland.

Photo by Eric Jones

These statues are a permanent memorial to the many people who suffered and fled the Great Famine. It was built on the departure site of the Perseverance, one of the first famine ships to leave the area in 1846. The ship's captain was a seventy-four year old man who quit his office job to transport hundreds of starving people from Dublin to America. All passengers arrived safely on that maiden voyage and the Perseverance was one of the first of thousands of ships to make that desperate crossing. 

Photo by Shannon Haire - Used with Permisson

Rowan Gillespie’s haunting sculptures are a stark reminder of the tragic loss of life and home that the Irish people suffered and his vision captures the utter despair that millions of families were feeling during the great famine. These eerie memorial statues make it impossible to walk the banks of the river without feeling the desolate ghosts of the dead. In the water there is a replicated famine boat that doubles as one of the many famine museums located throughout Ireland. The ‘Jeanie Johnston’ is a is a fitting backdrop to the darkness of Gillespie’s pieces, and both ensure that those who visit the area will forever remember one of the biggest tragedies in Irish history.

Shannon Haire is an Irish history blogger and author. Her newly released book, Petticoats, Patriots, and Partition, is available on Amazon.com. She blogs regularly about Irish history, politics, and current events on her increasingly popular blog,  Choosing the Green - Roghnú Glas

Art Amort: Angelique Stacey - Vanity Vehicle Memento Mori Paintings

Angelique X Stacey, Artist & Performer

No one will ever accuse Angelique X Stacey of squandering her many talents. 

A seasoned musician whose vocals have soared over San Francisco crowds for two decades, her eclectic repertoire flirts with several genres. Her powerful, seductive voice is accompanied by the mastery of several instruments, hand and rod and marionette puppeteering and building, modeling, tattooing, and at least a working knowledge of just about anything artistically expressive.

 When skimming her diverse resume of performances and accomplishments, it's almost easy to miss what is easily one of her most compelling artistic endeavors–Commissioned Memento Mori Portraits, using the ashes of the deceased companion. 

Provided with the photo of a person (or pet) that has expired as well as their cremated remains, Angelique sketches out the portrait, then recreates their likeness using acrylic or antique mortuary make-up as a media, ashes included.

Angelique at work

A firm believer in the afterlife and the spirit world, Angelique has always had a strong rapport with death. That connection deepened with the sudden passing of her best friend Heather, who Angelique has canonized on a 16x20 canvas.

Heather Dawn Oswald. Acrylics and Antique Mortuary Makeup on Canvas 16x20

We had questions. We had deathy questions, artsy questions, nosy questions. 

Tell us a little about Heather. Was she your first Memento Mori painting?

Heather was my best friend who died in a car accident Nov. 5th 2001. She is the first portrait painted that I have kept, but not the first to be painted. 

That goes to my Uncle Charles, I painted a portrait of him for his 80th birthday and gifted it to him. He passed away soon after, a beloved Navy veteran and Mason who also work for the SFPD.

I had originally planned to start with my Aunt Pat from Glasgow, Scotland. She was the first person to contact me to let me know they were passing. This was in May of 1983. She took me to her favourite place (the London Zoo) after I rode to see her on water kelpie in a dream. She told me that she loved me and that she was there for me. About a decade later my father gave me her ashes to do a painting with. Since she was my first after death contact.

What do you find a portrait like this offers to the grieving? 

I think it's a way to memorialize them, to not forget their faces or their eye colour and what they meant to me, I imagine it's the same for my clients, it's a touchstone that literally has their loved one in it.. Heather I had to paint for my own healing. I saved the makeup that I used on her for her funeral viewing. She was buried  not cremated so I used the makeup and antique makeup and embalming products in her painting. 

 Is the medium difficult to work with?

I donated the mortuary makeup to a museum in Louisville,  Kentucky.  It was from the turn of the century to the 1930's so it was quite toxic. So whilst using it is wore gloves.

As far as cremains themselves, it's most gritty, dust and bone. It mixes in with most mediums. 

I have been warned there are some brain diseases that can survive cremation so it is good to handle all biological material with care. Gloves,  masks. Humans are ground a bit finer then say dogs so some paintings are more textured then others.

Furry family members get the same loving touch

What would you like done with your remains, and who would you trust to follow through with your wishes? How can you be contacted if someone is interested in commissioning a piece?

I had a will for a long time that willed different tattoos to be preserved and framed for folks but I don't have someone in place to follow out my wishes, I will write that down in my Edward Gorey "what to do when I am dead" book for my survivors.   I am an organ donor so I think I will end up hopefully helping others. 

If there was anything left to make a creative use of it would be an honour. Maybe some spooky memento Mori jewelry would be nice.

Any takers? Where can people contact you if they would like a portrait done?

I can be contacted on Facebook (and all other social media under Angelique X Stacy) or email at angelxstacy@gmail.com

Heather's portrait in the works 

Art Amort: Olaf Jens

Olaf Jens is back from the grave to capture some California lady killers.

Dj, art college drop-out, Dutch expat and current Nevada County local artist Olaf Jens spent 20 years in a booze-soaked free-for-all of Djing, touring through Europe drumming for Garage Punk bands, and basically sticking his grubby fingers in every orifice of the counter-culture's creative scene.

After moving his family to the slower pace of Northern California, he decided to pick up the skill long abandoned for the punk rock lifestyle, and his intricate, gruff sketches are gracing the covers of zombie-centric punk albums, retro-creep clothing, and classing up the pages of magazines and newspapers.

Jens' most recent accomplishment is what we're dying to see. He just wrapped up the illustrations for a new true crime book by David Kulczyk, author of Death in California: The Bizarre, Freakish and Just Curious Ways People Die in the Golden State. The book is scheduled for release in 2016, and focuses on California killers of the female persuasion. Jens illustrations are portraits of the featured women, and we're waiting with bated breath.

Until then, some of his cowboy zombie skull stuff will have to do. 

The images of the illustrious Olaf Jens and a regular stream of his most recent artistic undertakings can be enjoyed on his Facebook page, or Instagram.