While I'm waiting for my hot dog-noodle casserole to bake, I thought I'd write about something I know quite well: cemetery art.
Seriously, there is art to be found in a cemetery. Cemeteries are only creepy if you let your imagination run away with you. Yes, there are ghosts...but rarely in a cemetery. Inside a cemetery are both sad and fascinating stories, insight into history, and also people's lives, and...genuine artwork.
The world's first 'butch' angel?
Here is a photo of a momument known as "The Angel of the Sepulchre." What makes this monument so unique in the world of cemetery art, it that it was very literally the first time a cemetery angel was depicted as "manly." No, seriously. It was, back then, not considered cool to depict an angel to look like an actual man. Angels were...well, angelic--ethreal creatures, feminine or wraith-like. This guy, seated on his chair, fists clenched--it very butch, trust me.
The work was done by Albany NY sculptor and artist, Erastus Dow Palmer--who also designed buildings, including one of the cemetery's gate houses, which still stands today. It was so unique at the time, that a photograph of the angel even appeared in a European art journal, around 1871.
Here is a slightly newer monument, also done by a prominent sculptor:
