Nox mortua non est…

The night is not dead…  

Penumbrae (2019) is a fully illustrated art book featuring a Latin poem. The design follows the model of a refined children’s book. It evokes the mystery within nature and features twenty full color illustrations. It walks the line between surrealism and nostalgia; the ancient and the contemporary. 

One of my most involved projects, Penumbrae features an original 20 line Latin poem I wrote towards the end of high school (mostly out of spite), with a full color illustration corresponding with each line along with a small lifework piece, resulting in over 40 pieces created for the book. The project took just over a month, and somewhere around 150 hours were invested into working on it. Working with the ideas in the poem– acknowledging the fear of the unknown in the shadows, while simultaneously romanticizing their dark beauty– the illustration have a restrained, dark palette (which was quite the beast to tame for printing) that extends to the binding of the book itself. The books are bound in black cardstock and the cover art printed in black ink, resulting in a striking glossy black on matte black effect that catches the light and mimics the shadow found in the pages. Each book comes with a corresponding bookmark that has the English translation of the poem, also printed black on black.

Penumbrae
Nox mortua non est,
utinam auscultis
quin discendes
tenebrae; vident,
tenebrae; sciunt,
quid absconditorum habent
incognitum, interminabile, inaspectum.
Alienus nobis sunt,
sed nos non eis.
Saga noctis sunt,
alte nubilosius quam
illa mare vinea-cyanea.
Curators forum nostrum,
tenebricosus sunt,
penumbrae in mundo suuus
ne reperiamus.
Enim nox mortua non est,
temporus prodige ausculte et spectire,
alte vivius est quam
vel te vel me.

Penumbrae
The night is not dead,
if only you listen
you will learn that
the shadows; they see,
the shadows; they know,
of what secrets they hold
unknown, untold, unseen.
They are strangers to us,
but us not to them.
The shrouds of night,
far inkier than even
that wine-dark sea.
The keepers of our fates,
tenebrous as they are,
penumbrae in their own world
that we may never espy.
For the night is not dead,
take time to listen and see,
for it is far more alive 
than either you or I.

The vignette for each line takes the meaning or context of the line into account to create a robust experience. Running with the themes of the poem, the book sets the scene of the menagerie lurking in the dusky twilight hours where most dare not to venture. A cast of animals that are just a little bit off reside in the shadows where humankind oft looks not. Deer with three pairs of eyes, crows with four wings, and coyotes with six toes all grace the pages and raise the question– would you notice if a critter of the nocturnal hours wasn’t quite right?

In the same vein, this project is a bit of a precursor to Perfectly Normal Deer, which hones in on the concept of strange cervids.

Copies are available for purchase here!