vanitas still life

Vanitas painting was a style inspired by a line in Ecclesiastes: "all is vanity." The paintings were typically dark and filled with objects that symbolize the transience of life and the futility of earthly possessions. A human skull, for example, was a common way for the painter to say "hey look, people die."

I didn't have any skulls around the house, so I decided to use what was already on my desk and come up with the symbolism later. So here it is. There is a modem, responsible for much idleness. There are two daily joke calendars showing time fly. I still have last year's because it's so funny, and this year's because I forget what day it.

In a classical vanitas painting, musical instruments (along with books) pointed to the empty pursuit of loftiness or knowledge. I prefer to think that mine symbolize an angel playing maracas and a harmonica while dancing on my grave. (I've made a mental note to someday take a picture of what that might look like.)

There is a camera, delegated to less use since I got another. There is an oblique reference to money that will soon be used to pay someone to drill a hole in one of my molars. There is also a large pile of miscellaneous crap, which symbolizes a large pile of miscellaneous crap.