MEMENTO MORI, MEMENTO VIVERE | Danica Snyder

“The piece is inspired by memento mori paintings, still life works designed to remind the viewer of the shortness and fragility of their life. The Latin phrase means “remember that you will die” and is sometimes combined with the phrase “memento vivere” or “remember to live." The spine on the vinyl record sleeve of my favorite Phoebe Bridgers speaks to my levoscoliosis. The stuffed bunny I’ve had for every brain and spine surgery alongside the cardiac medicines I take for Dysautonomia/POTS represent a daily reckoning with my own mortality. I also included objects that remind me of the happiest parts of my life: my mother's childhood locket, favorite books and a plant I've cared for. My life is hard but good.”

Danica Snyder is a high school junior from Tucson, Ariz. Beginning with a Chiari diagnosis and brain decompression surgery at two years old, a rare atlas assimilation that required cervical spinal fusion at three and a complicated revision surgery at nine, all accompanied with the comorbidities of Ehlers Danlos, she has known the painful fragility of life. Her determination to focus on the beautiful and possible is often the theme of her work. She is planning to attend a liberal arts university on the East Coast and hopes to continue making art at the intersection of medical narrative and hope.

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