Rose on Ice / Memento Mori

In which I try my hand at Medieval painting, frozen bubble style.

It was 22 degrees F when I got up, and as soon as the sun arrived, out I went into the yard to make frozen bubbles. I took along some dried roses, some cheesie poofs, and some smooth, round leaves. There were already some dried grapes waiting for me on my stump slices, which I'd picked up along the road on one of my walks.

The dried roses were from a beautiful bouquet that my dear, old friends sent to my parents' funeral back in late September. The cheesie poofs were from the last bag of those snacks I took out of my mother's house; every night, she had teaberry ice cream and cheesie poofs for supper. (What does a 92-year-old lady eat for supper? Whatever she darn well pleases!)

The cheesie poofs were a bust, I am sorry to report. In fact, it seems that cheesie poof dust has ANTI-bubble-making properties. Every single bubble I blew onto them instantly popped. But I had much more success with the roses, the grapes, and the shapely leaves.

Above you may see one of my rose photos. I thought it turned out pretty interesting, being able to view the rose petals THROUGH the ice, like it was a paperweight with a rose tucked inside. The ice sort of clung to the petals, which was cool.

And the grapes, well, they were fabulous. The ice formed around the little spheres in neat ways. In Medieval paintings, grapes symbolized many things. Fertility and salvation, due to their symbolic link to the blood of Christ. Debauchery and drunkenness. And decaying grapes represented the transient nature of our existence, as a sort of memento mori.

So here are my two pictures for the day: a rose on ice, and a memento mori. My two soundtrack songs are by Johnny Cash. For the shot above, here is Give My Love to Rose. For the one in the extras, here is Hurt, which uses marvelous visual symbolism (as well as an amazing song) to convey loss and sorrow and regret. 

And perhaps some of the most important questions in life are these: Can you make all of that into art? Can you turn all of the broken and diminished things into something beautiful?

Bonus link to my canonical frozen bubble making tips here.