from Club advisor, professor Hudson...
In attempts to create both a trendy and symbolic design for this year’s “Le Club” t-shirt, the French Club commissioned Orem artist Jay Dee to come up with something decidedly French and decidedly hip.
Given his background in fantasy and tattoo artwork, we decided to ask Jay Dee (himself the son of the Church sculptor who replicated the Christus in Salt Lake City and cast the bronze Brigham Young statue at the Provo City Library at Academy Square) to produce a graphic similar to those present on the fashionable “Ed Hardy” line by French designer Christian Audigier.
The symbolism of his artwork draws from a variety of French sources across the ages. The woman to the lower left is a composite of a Belle Époque fée verte, who, instead of holding a glass of absinthe, is holding a skull reminiscent of 17th-century French painter Georges de La Tour’s famous Madeleine. Once again, the medieval theme of memento mori is repeated to the lower right side. Between the woman and tête de mort, a rose recalls both the Roman de la rose (the allegorical masterpiece of Christ’s love for the Church) as well as Renaissance poet Ronsard’s appeal to the rose in his plea to enjoy the transitory nature of youthful beauty. To the right of the skull are some Baudelairean fleurs du mal and at the center of it all is the fleur de lys, traditional symbol of French Old Regime royalty. Keeping watch above it all is the symbol of Gallic France, from Vercingétorix to the present day, le coq gaulois, and behind everything, working with the unfurled “Le Club” banner to create a sense of the time-honored blason, is some medieval castling. Symbolism meets style in this year’s significant, first-of-its-kind “Le Club” t-shirt—which is free with club membership (sign-ups in 3134 JFSB).
