Hamlet mourns Yorick in the cemetary after his death. Yorick was the court jester from when Hamlet was a child, so Hamlet did know Yorick well. Later in the play, or it may be the same scene, I never actually read or saw Hamlet on the stage, (I know, my cultural upbringing has a lot of holes in it….but I know every Nine Inch Nails song), but later…Hamlet says, “To be or not to be, that is the question”, which is the very essence of the Memento Mori and Vanitas paintings. Life is fleeting, time is short and our worldly existence is temporary and possibly insignificant in the larger scheme of things, what ever scheme the Universe may be finagling .

The picture below was taken by my self of myself, while working on this new piece of a skeletal Beauty Queen moments after she is crowned most beautiful, the tiara on her head, the roses clutched against her bosom, and black bone dust streaming down from her hollow eyes. I already have a title for it, borrowed from Iggy Pop’s song, LUst for Life. There is a line in it that I always liked, “ I’m worth a million in prizes”, that’s the title.