I have been encouraged and challenged by Rob, Kitty and Alex Cassetti in the development of this Memento Mori work. Their insight, humor and pointed art direction keeps my wheels going and my head spinning. They help to make the memories of yesterday, today and those to come poignant and true. I am blessed by their presence in my life. The home team is the best.
MEMENTO
MOrI Volume Two Daily Illustrations & Observations by Q. Cassetti
OCTOBER 31- DECEMBER 31, 2007
Death or life or life or death Death is life and life is death I gotta use words when I talk to you But if you understand or if you don’t That’s nothing to me and nothing to you We all gotta do what we gotta do T.S. (Thomas Stearns) Eliot (1888–1965), U.S.-born—British poet, critic.
Memento mori is a Latin phrase that may be translated as “Remember that you are mortal,” “Remember you will die,” or “Remember your death”. It frames a collection of creative efforts from painting to music to drama and decorative arts that vary widely from one another, but which all share the same purpose, which is to remind us of their own mortality. This book is part of a sketch process started in August, 2007 in response to my receiving my MA in Illustration from Syracuse University and my pending fiftieth birthday with the “crisis” or heavy thinking I was doing around Memento Mori. The first volume was from August until October 31, 2007. This piece takes up from November 1, 2007 until January 1, 2008. There will be two more volumes to accomodate the sketches up untilJuly, 2oo8. This work will be the basis of a body of work component for a thesis for a M.F.A. in Illustration from the University of Hartford, Connecticut. What happens with these sketches and scrap is still vague. But with more work, more writing and more reading should point towards a direction and scope for the work. This book deliberately does not include my thinking and writing from my blog, The Rongovian Academy of Fine Arts (http://qcassetti.blogspot.com) which charts my thinking, reading and sketches on a daily basis. I want to focus on the images and see how they live without the random written content. Volume Three : the work from January 1- March 31st, 2008 will have both images and copy as I have gotten positive insight from “my public” about the written work in addition to the pix. I have been inspired by Allan Ludwig’s seminal book, Graven, focusing on the symbols and practices of the colonial puritans. I have grown in my thinking and understanding along with a furthering of my skills as a designer/illustrator and as a person looking at the future through the lens of study and reflection, not that of fear. I embrace this journey of self exploration with humor and work to see what evolves without any goals other than to enjoy the trip.
I would like to thank my blog community and the participants of Illustration Friday for their ideas and involvement. A special nod to all the interesting people who visited me during the two Ithaca Art Trail weekends in October, 2007 giving me good response, input and questions about my work. Thank you for accepting this mid-life pursuit of an idea and by being so positive about the development of it. All sketches have been rendered in pencil, Faber Castell Pitt pens, the Pentel Pocket Brush pen, Prismacolor Verithin photo blue pencil and theRotring Art Pen using Dr. Martin’s Black Star Matte Ink on a Canson Montval All Media sketchbook. The font used in this booklet is Requiem Text Roman and Italic designed by Jonathan Hoefler (www.typographv.com). All page assembly is in Adobe InDesign CS2. All scanning and image correction is in Adobe Photoshop CS2 on an Apple Macintosh G-5 Tower with a Wacom Intuos tablet. Printing and production is by Lulu.com. Š2008, Q. Cassetti
Q. Cassetti Luckystone Partners Two Camp Street Trumansburg, New York 14886 q@theluckystone.com http://qcassetti.blogpot.com www.qcassetti.com