Grace Kirch

Robert Louis Stevenson School

Junior

My work, Memento Vivere, Latin for remember to live, is a play on 17th-century Memento Mori style still life which sought to remind us of our mortality, literally translating to “remember we must die”.

My work is intended to symbolize the gentle stirring or resumption of life after living in the shadows of the pandemic. I usually like to paint people and faces; in this piece, I chose instead to take the person out of the subject to depersonalize the image while hopefully personalizing the meaning. The fruit and the hands could belong to anybody. I chose to paint the pomegranate fruit not only because of its natural intricacy and brilliant colors, but also because it is rich in symbolic history and meaning like fertility, birth, resurrection and, in Greek mythology, even a pause in life. The black background represents the darkness of the pandemic, the light, the hope of new beginnings and the pomegranate the rebirth or resumption of life. The two sets of hands speak to the social aspect of this resumption, as we get back to tasting life again and coming together to share it with friends and family.