cRaZy for CULT 4D: Rushmore

Whaaaaaaatttt uppppp! Crazy for Cult at 1988 Gallery is in session again, for the fourth time. This is my second time participating in this event and the happenings just keep, well, happening.

For my cult movie, I choose, Rushmore, which, for me, is director Wes Anderson’s best movie, though all his movies are great. This print will be released and sold tomorrow (Friday, July , 2010) at Gallery 1988 in Los Angeles, along with the work of 100 other artists. The price will be announced by the Gallery.

My print, titled, Sic Transit Gloria, is a four color, hand screen printed poster on 18 x 24 inch 100 lb Cougar Cover paper. It uses metallic silver and glow in the dark inks to create a very magical look.

Here are some detail shots I took. I must warn you that this poster is hard to photograph because the silver reflects whatever it’s near, but I think these are good shots to share with you.

These pictures were taken of the poster in the dark and with a black light to show you how it glows. For the best results, use a black light lamp, with can be bought from many places online for less than $10.

Here’s a slideshow of the rest of the pictures I took.

Rushmore, the movie, has a very personal connection to me. I incorporated my interpretation of the movie into this art print.

In the movie, the characters Max Fischer and Miss Cross represent the need to move on and the the desire to cling to the past, respectively.

Miss Cross clings to her departed husband, Edward Appleby. She lives in his house and doesn’t want to move on. Whenever she talks about him, she reminisces. Her mentality is summed up in her Latin phrase, nihilo santum estne?
(Is nothing sacred?)

Max, is like Miss Cross, he wants to cling to Rushmore like she wants to cling to Edward Appleby. As a student of Rushmore, Max is almost superhuman, excelling in all the arts and humanities. His intellect is never in question, so one is led to assume his failing grades are intentional, as an effort to stay in Rushmore, rather than go out into the world. Despite Max’s many achievements, he will need to move on as Rushmore can’t last forever. Therefore, his Latin phrase is Sic Transit Gloria (Glory fades).

How does Max’s phrase apply to him though? It means that no single act or acts sum up our lives. No matter how great something was, you always have to move on, you can’t linger in the glow of past actions.

It sounds negative, but it isn’t. Glory fades means just that, glory fades, but it doesn’t ever go away completely. Its effects linger on, however faintly. This is demonstrated in the movie when Miss Cross says to Max,”You were a member of the Rushmore Bee Keepers weren’t you?/Edward Appleby founded that club”. Edward Appleby is dead, yet the accomplishments of his life still go on. The moment she says that to Max, we see a montage of him making the transition of putting Rushmore behind him, though not without a few hangups in the rest of the movie. Upon realizing that his actions will be remembered, in some way or another, he is finally able to move on.

I chose constellations because the ancients often saw them as the remnants of the achievements of heroes, long gone. Their glory has faded, but not gone away. Perhaps near the end of everyone’s life, they should look back on their greatest achievements, establish their constellation in the night sky, and share that constellation with the people they knew, to leave them with an everlasting and accessible remnant of themselves. Just something to think about.