House of Shadows

This is the third article in the cemetery art series; which is a study of the expression of sorrow through body language used in grave markers and monuments. If this is your first visit to the House of Shadows or you want to begin reading this series from the beginning go back to the post of November 27, “Stories In Stone”.

I had a epiphany of sorts as I searched through pictures of graveyard art to study statuary representing grieving. My search began as a way to plan for the design of my “Beloved” prop based on a typical scene of a grieving widow draped over what is assumed to be her lover’s tomb. I have seen “Beloved” props inscribed in two different ways. One is a simple inscription on the tomb that reads “Beloved” and the other has the additional inscription “Beneath this simple stone, my beloved sleeps alone.”

As I continued to look at pictures, it occurred to me that often times a monument represents grief over the loss of an infant or child. So my first assumption of a prop depicting a wife mourning the loss of a husband was a limited perspective. A “Beloved” prop could be designed to express the grief of a mother who mourns the loss of a child. You might say, “If a woman is mourning the loss of a loved one, what difference does it make if it is a husband, child, or infant?” While it is true that you may not see a difference in body language, you might see a difference in the ornamentation used on the tomb. This would open more possibilities for how you want to design your prop to make it uniquely yours.

There is another detail that also offers flexibility. I’m designing my prop based on a dress I bought on eBay. However, many mourning figures are portrayed by simply using fabric to drape around a body. This effect could be recreated in a prop by loosely sculpting a body shape from wire, using a wig head, and draping the shape with burlap before applying monster mud. Sometimes the hands show and other times they don’t, so you can choose to attempt sculpting hands or just give an illusion of hands under the cloth. So don’t let the lack of the right dress or garment stop you from trying something different than what you have already seen.

Here are a few more pictures to study before I move on to ornamentation tomorrow. My mind is becoming over stimulated with possibilities now …

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