This ongoing series explores the concept of family by asking the question, Who pays the price for the speed at which we travel through life? 

What if we considered every dead animal on the roadside as a member of our family? What if we took the time to mourn their loss of life? At my grandparents’ house, there is a wall filled with wooden oval picture frames of family portraits. Borrowing this visual archetype of “family portrait” while filling the frames with images of roadkill, I challenge the viewer to recognize their place in “the family of things” and thus our responsibility to care for the earth and all that is within it. 

The title of this project joins together the art historical concept of including symbols of death (often a skull or hourglass) in a painting and Mary Oliver’s poem “Wild Geese.” Memento mori is a way to remind ourselves that we will all one day die, thus placing an emphasis on the importance of how we live our lives. Oliver’s poem, a longtime favorite of mine, reminds us of the pure joy it is to exist in this wonderful world - and our interconnectedness with all nature.