The beauty of Charleston extends well beyond the grandeur of the Antebellum mansions of The Battery and the lushness of the moss covered oak forests that surround the historic Southern city. Like the aging, but exquisitely preserved and dignified matron that she is, Charleston too holds her secrets, her quiet and dark places where the remains of centuries of departed Charlestonians rest in quiet slumber. Sleeping. Sleeping.
A dark, pervasive gloom hung round my soul, like an evil wind blowing east out of the dry and dusty prairie. No amount of ukulele music could lift this oppressive veil of shadows, and I knew of only one remedy, one mystical elixir powerful enough to dispel this blanket of misery. As the dark and heavy clouds rolled into the city, I set forth to the one place capable of bringing the sun into my otherwise dead and miserable soul… the local cemetery! Yahoo! Tombstones! Crypts! Mausoleums! No, honestly, it is always fun to see the art and artifice surrounding our treatment of the dear departed, and generally a still and peaceful oasis for quiet contemplation and reflection. Today I was concentrating on small carving details and reliefs, and the minute beauty to be found surrounding the eternal monuments to grief. Here are but a few of the many bits of funerary art I discovered on my brief field trip before the rains sent me seeking a drier and warmer embrace.
neondreamscapes 