Just like quotes, art too also does not make a whole lot of sense. It’s what it represents. What it could mean.
After writing my last letter about quotes, I asked my cousin – a tattoo artist – to make me a piece based on:
The idea behind this is philosophical – the flower representing life, the skull representing death and the hourglass, time. The overall theme was “Memento Mori”:
An artistic or symbolic trope acting as a reminder of the inevitability of death.
A reminder that I could leave life right now, and to let that determine the actions I make. If you’ve read any of my letters, I like to reference this here and there.
Here’s what he created:
To anyone else, this may just seem like a collection of images. But knowing this is a personal piece where both I’ve had input, and Cuba, my cousin, it means a lot more.
But I still felt the only way I could really make this a proper collaboration was to tie it in with the motive of creating it in the first place. Nonsensical language. So I added a little to it:
There’s some writing amongst the birds, around the skull, web, coffin, sun and butterflies.
From afar, is almost looks like a little highlight. But when you move closer you can see it’s all just a little bit of nonsensical language.
And now this sits on my wall. A collaboration between my cousin and me, and it doesn't need to represent anything literally, just abstract ideas.
This letter isn’t for me to explain what the different ideas are in this piece. This is for me, on my wall. If you can find something in it for yourself, even better. But you should surround yourself with art, quotes and the like for the sake of being non-sensical. Just to remind yourself of the possible.
Stay inspired,
Josh