I get a deep sense of stillness — maybe even peace — when I wander through graveyards. The new banner might not say spring to everyone, but it makes me think of wandering in the warm sun someday soon, enjoying the fact while I might indeed be feeling very still, I’m not nearly as still as some of the other folks nearby. Yet. A bit of momento mori is never a bad thing, yes?

This lovely tilt-shift shot (faked, actually) is by Jenny Spadafora, my co-conspirator in the Monday / Thursday project. One of the things I love about Jenny’s attitude toward photography is that she’s so experimental, always fiddling around and trying new things. Her enduring sense of whimsy also certainly doesn’t hurt. In fact, I had planned on using this shot of a life-size lego sea serpent until it became apparent it just wasn’t going to work as a banner. It’s really very her.

So the tiny tombstones will be up at the top of the page until June 1, when a new artist will go up. And they’ll stand on their own, since I managed to stop myself from pretentiously slapping an ars longa, vita brevis tagline on there.

(By the way, the early archives are littered with bits of my cemetery fascination, which dates back decades. In fact, one of the things I appreciated about my first love was that he lived next to a small, working-class cemetery.)