This maniere noir lithograph is part of a diptych, and is my response to the vanitas paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, which I visited multiple times this summer. I kept returning to the paintings of European masters. With stunning attention to detail, they managed to remind their patrons and themselves that the things of this world are not lasting. Yes, it is often all we know, but we also have sat down to tackle the enormous project that is clearing out the attics or basements of people long gone.

In this project I am calling out the desire for recognition, the desire for knowledge and travel, and the desire for control of our own lives - our time in this life. These are the things we too often place our identities in, and yet they all can end up in a box in the basement, with only the spiders to take notice of them.

The following images document my progress as I explored the physical and mental task of saying so much with so little. The process alone was meaningful, as I attempted to shed light on objects left in the dark through scratching away the darkness to reveal the light, which is the method of maniere noir - the manner of black.