All’s well that ends well. So say I, anyway.

Setting aside the fact that I forgot to reverse the text, from the very start of the project, I’m happy with the product. I found a gravestone on Pinterest with an ivy-and-log theme, and thought the thinly-veiled Pagan feeling of evergreen and renewal blended perfectly with the thinly-veiled Christian sentiment about life in Christ. I’m not quite sure who we’ll couple this phrase with–George Michael? 

There is something important and moving to me in drawing on the type and traditions of the ’20s. It’s a connection to my very staid New England ancestors, and to what “respect for the dead” looked like for me as a young person in the ’70s. Also it’s a flavor that’s out there in the zeitgeist right now, to judge from Pinterest searches for “hand lettering” and from coffee shop price signs. And lastly, I believe that these images offer a multivalent counterpoint and commentary on the portrait linocuts, and on the celebrities we’re spending time with. Is a celebrity like George Michael eternal? How about Bowie? I think the answer is yes, from the perspective of my youth–and no, from my perspective as an adult. And yes, in the way that all life is Now, and eternal. And on.

I’m heading to Ohio to get together with Lee for a print and promotion fest. After we print this image and pull long faces over my foolishness, I’ll scan it and flip it in Photoshop. We can still use it in the book.