[Flashback Friday] #38. Quoth the Skull

Welcome to another addition of Flashback Friday.** This year the guest editors, Citizen Agent, Tatman, and myself, Azurafae, are taking turns counting down our personal favorite 17 skulls from the Original 365.25 Year. So please join us as we visit the archives and add our additional commentary on some of the original pieces.

1. #38. Quoth the Skull


To talk about this piece, I should mention how I found out about the project. In March 2009, I was on vacation with my husband and daughter. We went to the book store, because I love books. I was looking through the art books and found "Skulls" by Noah Scalin. We looked through it and were amazed at the variety of skulls. This particular one drew me in the most. See, I love Edgar Allan Poe. I have since I first learned about him as a child. The dark macabre nature of his work was what attracted him. I also like ravens and all carrion birds (scavengers). I'm not sure when I started liking those, but probably when I read his poem "The Raven". I immediate said, I need this as a tattoo. For a reason I don't recall, I didn't purchase the book then.

When we returned from our trip, I found the blog and started following it. I became a frequent commenter and started making skulls. Something about making skulls solved a creative block that I had for years. A few of them were posted on the blog, which is great. In June, was my birthday. We had a big celebration at a local club. As I'm talking to my friends, I turned around and there was Noah. I was pleasantly surprised. He is a member of the same club and because I had been talking about my party so much on Facebook, which we are friends on, he wanted to come find out who I was. We talked a bit then. I was wearing a skull print 50s style dress, which of course he loved. Later, my best friend Kit McSmash gave me some b-day presents. One of them was the "Skulls" book. How convenient was this timing? He signed the book for me. We talked a bit more and then I went off to enjoy the rest of the party...which I don't remember much about...hey it was my birthday.

Afterwards, I kept on following the project. Fast forward to March 2010. I had been talking to Noah, Tatman and Citizen Agent for about a year now. The fourth year of Skull-A-Day was rapidly approaching. I got an email from Noah asking me to join the team and become a co-editor, like Tatman and Citizen Agent are. Of course, I said yes...or I wouldn't be writing this. I have learned a lot from them since then and have expanded my creative repertoire.

As a "welcome to the team" gift, Tatman made me this glass with the quoth the raven image etched into it. It sits in my grandmother's record player cabinet with some of my Dia de la Abby skull art pieces. The photos don't do it justice. It's a really great piece.

Remember the part about me saying I wanted to get this piece tattooed on me, well Noah knew that I did want to. Fast forward to December 2010 (yep, that is a long time in between wanting and this point in time), I had been putting it off for some unknown reason. My husband and I had been talking about it for a long time, but I had yet to get it. Noah asked when I was going to get it. I finally set an appointment with an artist, for the next day. I currently have it tattooed on my left upper arm. Photos will come in a separate posts.

It's interesting to see how one piece of art can change your whole perspective on art. It's not just the one piece, either, it's the whole project and the guys. I have never worked with an team as amazing and helpful as they are. The project means so much, that no matter what may come years from now, I will always have it with me, on my arm and in my heart.




**Flashback Friday was a weekly countdown of the fan selected top 52 skulls of Skull-A-Day 1.o. Each week during year 3.0 The Skullmaster posted the original skull along with some additional commentary in order from lowest to highest rated, with the #1 skull appearing in the last week of year 3.0, all 52 can be found here.