This journal is bound in natural undyed leather, tooled and hand painted with my original artwork. The theme of the journal is the medieval Dance Macabre, seen through a more contemporary lens. It is an ode to the transformative power of the feminine spirit, that does not look at the notion of death as a finality, but as a stage in the beautiful journey we are walking. It reimagines the skeletal form not as a symbol of decay, but as a sacred architecture, as the enduring foundation upon which beauty is constantly present and reinvented at all life stages, in all its magnificent forms.
Across four gothic arches, the evolution of a soul is unfolding. The first figure, a delicate bud wreathed in gold-leaf vines, represents the grace of beginnings and the fragile beauty of a single rose. The second and third figures adorned by heavy and elaborate costumes, marks our human desires, or man and woman, our lust, pleasures, richness, marriage, royalty, symbolizing the roles we play and inhabit throughout a lifetime. The last figure, the harvest, crowned with a wide hat of mushrooms, represents the ultimate transformation, where the self decays, returns to the earth and eventually becomes a source of new life.
The painting was made with leather dyes on natural leather and sealed so that it does not wear off during time. A patina was applied to the entire book with transparent glazes so make it resemble an old binding.
The book measures 10.2 x 7.3 inches (26 x 18.5 cm). It has 150 pages (300 sides) of Favini Laguna artist paper with parchment finish. This paper is acid free, hand-torn, has 180 gsm and will work for writing and sketching in any media, even watercolor.
The endpages are made of hand marbled paper. The headbands were hand sewn in blue and gold colors from metallic and waxed cotton thread thread.
This book is an art object. You can use it as a personal reflection journal for your life or as a family book to pass down as a heirloom.
