The Brass Rose
Discovering Art in Cemeteries
Mark Rushton’s Perseverance in the Arts is a weekly email on Substack where I talk about my ongoing work as a recording artist and visual artist.
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This week’s topics:
The Brass Rose
Joep Beving - “Pax”
The Brass Rose
If you know me or have read my other posts, then you know I do volunteer cleaning of stones and markers in cemeteries.
When I’m cleaning, I always take “before” and “after” photos.
And sometimes I take photos of the various artwork on the stones and markers that don’t need cleaning.
For “The Brass Rose”, I edited just a small section of the marker. This style is common in markers from the past 35 or 40 years.
While everything on the marker is a dull brown and black, I thought there might be something I could do to the small rose using my technique.
I messed with it a little in the software and then printed it using a thermal ribbon printer onto my favorite synthetic paper. I used naphthol crimson and then added a little “flame orange” to brighten it. On the outside, it was just sepia. Imperfect, as always. Then a bit of buffing with paper towels to bring out a little bit of the synthetic paper’s “grain”.
I’m ordering an 18” tote bag of this image. Whenever I take my other bags to the store, they often get positive comments. I suppose that’s a way to “test drive” whether people like the design.
I’m also putting the image on a t-shirt, although in a different crop.
There’s also a metal print available, up to 48” x 48”. I think it makes this virtual space and can only imagine what it would look like in reality.
I think “The Brass Rose” turned out beautiful.
What started as a little ornamental decoration on somebody’s grave marker - all dull metallic and ordinary - and something most people would step over and ignore, was suddenly brought back to life in another artform.
Joep Beving - “Pax”
This week’s music is a solo piano piece by Dutch composer Joep Beving.
“Pax” (link to Qobuz).
Wear good headphones. I like Grados.