Soul Passages

Age old question - what does the soul do when the body dies?

Age, disease, and physical trauma can do terrible things to the body, but the soul retains its beauty and limitless energy forever. Light is one of my symbols for that energy of the soul. Image copyright Kathi Shotwell, all rights reserved.

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In this image, a group of family plots surround a tree in Key West Cemetery just after a hurricane came though and blew the leaves off the trees. Half of the image has color and the other half is black and white, symbolizing the passage from one world to the next. Image copyright Kathi Shotwell, all rights reserved.

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In this image, a banyan tree spreads its branches over several family plots in Key West cemetery. Banyans are one of several trees which represent an axis mundi, with the branches, trunk, and roots connecting the heavens, the earth, and the underworld. The banyan tree is sacred to the Hindu religion and is called "Ashwath Vriksha" in Sanskrit (from Wikipedia). Image copyright Kathi Shotwell, all rights reserved.

Botany and Functional Beauty

Dead Roses Dance - Blank Inside Greeting Cards

Flowers, herbs, and roots have always held an important place in any culture due to their use for medicine, ritual, and decoration.  I'm sure therapeutic and spiritual use increased their decorative value.  Archeological evidence shows botanical ingredients in funerary preparations by ancient Egyptians. The Roman goddess of flowers, Flora, had her own temple and festival. They were particularly fond of roses, and used them as garlands, in their food, scattered rose petals on floors, and showered them over their armies in victory marches.

Roman Mosaic, Floral Decoratio, Ostia Antica, Italy

Victorian era decorations were profuse with flowers - on walls, carpets, dishes, and more.  They even developed a language of flowers, which enabled a bouquet to double as a message.

Designs for Printed Fabrics, from 'Decorative Sketches', C.1895 (Colour Litho)

Today we enjoy decorative art from all ages of civilization, and even combine past and current traditions. Technology enables us to reproduce the two images above as posters.  Examples at the top and bottom of this post are some of my floral works. Again, thanks to modern technology, these images can be placed on greeting cards, postcards, or numerous other objects that you use every day.

Pink Rose Kiss Blank Postcards

Functional Beauty (ˈfuhngk-shuh-nl 'byoo-tee)

What is "functional beauty", anyway?

Generally, functional refers to something able to fulfill its purpose or function.

Noah Webster defined beauty in this way: 1. An assemblage of graces or properties pleasing to the eye, the ear, the intellect, the aesthetic faculty, or the moral sense.

Beauty of function or function of beauty? Neither or both? *I* define functional beauty as it relates to the decorative arts, to describe a useful object which is also beautiful. The beauty can be in the object's form itself or in decorative elements added to the form.

When function and beauty are combined, they enrich our senses and our souls by exposing us to beautiful designs and fine art as we go about our lives doing every day tasks. Humans have been doing this since they could scrape designs on cave walls. We continued with pigments and carvings on tools, weapons, pottery, clothing, books and on through to buildings, vehicles, and even landscape. My plan for this blog is to explore functional beauty from the past and today.

The image above is the "Mammoth Spear Thrower". It is a spear thrower made from a reindeer antler which was carved to depict a mammoth. It was found in a cave in France and is believed to be about 12,500 years old.  The photographer is Sara Branch of Wales.