Momento Mori by Harriet Steinbrock Smith

Momento Mori by Harriet Steinbrock Smith

Medium: screen printed textiles

Artist statement: Harriet Steinbrock Smith is a Pittsburgh based multidisciplinary visual artist. They use creative activity as a method of self inquiry, always returning to the question “who am I beyond my personal identity?” Their artistic practice commemorates a formative experience that revealed to them the singularity of conscious awareness. Harriet’s art is a celebration of the incorporeal dream nature of daily life. As an artist they aspire to “live the dream” both literally and figuratively.

The piece was stitched together out of screen printed textiles during a very isolated first winter in Pittsburgh. Harriet created the “one day you are going to die” patch as a self reminder to appreciate life no matter how much of a drag it had seemingly become. Some of the patches were printed at the New York State college of ceramics at Alfred University and others at the Artist Image Resource located in Pittsburgh’s Northside. All imagery is derived from Harriet’s original illustrations.

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A textile piece composed of various pieces of fabric hand stitched together with irregular lines. Each piece of fabric is a slightly different muted color with a screen printed image on it in different colors, such as red, green, brown, and blue. Some of the screen printed images include a simple illustration of a bottle shaped house, a skeleton-reminiscent figure with artistically rendered large eyes and mouth, an upside-down cursive rendering of the words “some day you are going to die,” and a garden like scene with the words “living the dream.”
A textile piece composed of various pieces of fabric hand stitched together with irregular lines. Each piece of fabric is a slightly different muted color with a screen printed image on it in different colors, such as red, green, brown, and blue. Some of the screen printed images include a simple illustration of a bottle shaped house, a skeleton-reminiscent figure with artistically rendered large eyes and mouth, an upside-down cursive rendering of the words “some day you are going to die,” and a garden like scene with the words “living the dream.”
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