Seattle A Book About Death

SEATTLE

IMAGE BY JENNA LESKELA

Sandoval, Almendra, ed. A Book About Death Seattle. Seattle: Quetzalcoatl, 2012. Print.

Sandoval, Almendra. A Book About Death. Seattle: Quetzalcoatl Gallery, 2012. Print.

Foreword by Matthew Rose

ALMENDRA SANDOVAL KATHLEEN MCHUGH & HERB SUNDVALL COVER J E N N A L E S K E L A

DESIGNED & EDITED CURATED IMAGE

ABADSEATTLE.BLOGSPOT.COM

BY KATHLEEN MCHUGH

S E AT T L E C O N T E N T S I N T R O D U C T I O N By Matthew Rose A NOTE ABOUT A BOOK ABOUT DEATH

A R T I S T I N D E X 12

Introduction BY Rae Jones

14

12 SPIRITS

16

Mwanzo Proud Farmers

202

6

A Matthew Rose poster for The Queens Museum of Art, New York

NOTE ABOUT

A BOOK ABOUT DEATH

By Matthew Rose

Matthew Rose poster for The RNG Gallery Omaha, Nebraska

Before I moved to Paris in September, 1992 Ray Johnson said to me, “Matthew, you should start The Paris Correspondence School.” What that meant exactly wasn’t clear, but when I arrived in France one of the first things I did was to have a rubber stamp made (in French and English) announcing just that. Ray’s New York Correspondence School was of course celebrated in the art world; as a “school” it was a highly unusual one, a loose “Buddha University” collection of students led by a Zen-like teacher who taught “nothing,” usually through the mail, but sometimes with happenings that included a cocktail of people, dogs, ladders, boxes, belts, and sometimes nothing at all. Ray would famously call people in the phone book named Ray Johnson (or Gertrude Stein), or write them. He was always working, it seemed, even when he was sleeping. People wondered what he ate. “Air?” someone suggested.

When Ray died on Friday, January 13, 1995 from an apparent suicide drowning in Sag Harbor, New York, I had, along with many others, quite a bit to unpack –lessons to learn or relearn. It was terribly puzzling: Was Ray’s death an act of art? Desperation? Or just a mystery, a lesson in itself, and one about life.

In January 2009 when I flew into a frigid New York City, I soon found myself considering Ray Johnson and his “school” again. Walking through an office buildingturned exhibition space with artist and friend Christian Xatrec we talked about how unusual spaces with their old telephone banks and glassed walls seemed to fit well with piles of bricks or sand or glass or mounds of crumpled paper; this was an effort to redefine not only sculpture but the idea of making and showing art. Christian, the director of the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in New York, suspected I wanted to propose an exhibition in the space he directed on 537 Broadway. Before I could get it out he told me, “Matthew, we don’t simply want artists to come and hang their work and wait for people to come in and buy it, but to create something unique at the crossroads of art, something about community…situationist.” Indeed that was the spirit of Emily Harvey’s space – a home for Fluxus artists of all stripes and flavors who challenged the givens of the art world and remade it.

“Give me a minute,” I said, walking away to reconfigure my idea. A moment later I tugged on his sleeve: “How about this: I invite 1000 artists to send me 500 small works – or post cards of their works – on the subject of death, A Book About Death – after Ray Johnson’s piece. It would serve as an homage (in mail art) to Ray, as well as to Emily, who died in 2004, and many others. I’d display the cards/works in the gallery and give them away for free. A limited edition book. Everyone benefits in this equation, and the exhibition touches upon a very open, a very deep and very wide subject – death.

The entire exhibition would be free – you walk in, experience it, and leave with a limited edition of the exhibition.” That was my simple idea. I watched Christian’s face. He smiled. “Do it.”

Mary Bogdan poster for MOMA Wales

I spent the next 10 days in New York, walking about in sub-zero winds and snow flurries armed with hot coffees thinking about the mechanics. I’d had large exhibitions before – wall-to-wall-to-ceiling-tofloor installations of my collage work.

Certainly, I would mail people, leverage the Internet and every contact I ever had. Years ago I produced a global mail event Greene Summer ’90 – that encouraged people to send mail to my friend, the actor Marvin Greene.

He received over the course of a summer about 500 pieces of mail from all over Europe, South America and the US. This would be different, of course.

Ray Johnson’s A Book About Death, a collection of photocopied drawings he sent out to people as part of his NYCS “work,” would serve as the philosophical and aesthetic point of departure. I would create a collaborative unbound book on the subject of death. Globally, we would explore, as artists and sons, daughters, parents, friends, observers the wide subject of death.

When I returned to Paris, I wrote and wrote. The call, originally in English, would also have to be in Spanish, Italian, German and Japanese, Chinese. I needed collaborators. I called my close friend, the Berlin-based artist, Gloria Zein. She would come to Paris soon. When she arrived, we reworked my draft and the various aspects of the call, the logistics, and the exhibition concept.

I sent the text around to a few people in New York and Europe for thoughts and translations; soon I had several languages of the art call posted on a server and available for download. I made phone calls to various artists asking them if they would be interested in such a project, would they speak, perform, advise?

I called printers all over the US to see if they would offer a special discount to our artists? (None would). I created the web site – abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com – then launched it. Would artists contribute 500 post cards, art works to become part of an unbound book on the subject of death?

Critical was putting the information on FaceBook, creating a group and asking one artist to ask two artists if she or he would participate. It would have to go

viral for it to be successful. Other social networks like Twitter and LinkedIn, and art sites where creatives congregated were targeted and messages posted. Others began to promote the show. I personally asked dozens of artists to produce works (and personally wrote Emily’s friend Yoko Ono – yes, she contributed).

The concept was pretty simple: Artists would design their cards, add the phrase “A BOOK ABOUT DEATH” in any language; the artists would send me the images of their works and their websites which I would post on the site. The artists would be responsible to print or produce the 500 works and mail them directly to the gallery. To say it took off is an understatement. Artists responded in a huge way and messages came in from China, Japan, Indonesia, South America and Europe, and

of course all over the US and Canada.

I asked a handful of artists to sign up to perform, give a lecture, a slide show. I was looking for brain surgeons, priests, rabbis and poets. I got musicians, Dadaists, Ray Johnson archivists, philosophers and more poets. I asked artists and designers to produce a poster for the exhibition that would be turned into a high resolution PDF that anyone could download. Great works came in and they were astonishing. The idea that the exhibition would be totally free in all its manifestations – and the website would be an exhibition on a site (or in a box) free as an archive for future shows – was in many ways its ethos. A major exhibition in the middle of New York that would be free for the taking – a limited edition book – was unheard of. Although other artists have given away their works as part of an exhibition, to my mind, was an entire show ever offered for free?

What became evident was the notion of death as a focal point was a powerful motivator for artists to produce and share their works. The content, which ranged from personal to philosophical, to a direct homage to Ray Johnson, or the late art dealer Emily Harvey, or as it turned out to hundreds of mothers, fathers, sons and daughters, and friends, was overwhelming. Children, first-time artists, cartoonists, painters, text artists, conceptual artists, photographers and poets sent in their works directly to 537 Broadway. The boxes began to pile up and the gallery was beginning to look like a warehouse. As artist works came in and the posters were designed, the line up of artists and performers also came together…but I had another idea: Broadcast the exhibition live on the Internet.

One of the artists Jeanne Jo called me from an airport in Seattle (while I was in Florida) and said that she could put the opening performances on the net so anyone tuning in to dedicated website would be able to watch.

Other details came together: A flash “wall” website designed by Caterina Verde, a program of events, the press release and a network of donors who offered to pay for a case of wine, tape, paper towels, cups and the hundreds of details needed to accommodate the artists their guests, and a very interested

Julia Hoffmann poster for Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery NYC

public. As the exhibition approached (it opened on September 9, 2009) artists from all over the US and Europe descended upon New York; in the three days prior to the opening, these artists helped open the boxes, catalog the works, and put my design of the exhibition into play. That idea – placing the boxes in rows on the floor, effectively forcing visitors to collect the cards on their hands and knees, or at the very least bent over – as if in

Joan Harrison poster for The Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery NYC

a cemetery, as if in some form of prayer, placing flowers, reading more closely the headstones – would be taxing, perhaps extremely taxing. Its form came from a conversation with Christian Xatrec. I quickly agreed. The visitors would perform; if the exhibition’s works were to be given away for free, it would also be earned.

Many hours and many boxes later, the exhibition came together. I lived in the gallery and in between responding to hundreds of e-mails about the show, whether works had arrived, I was recovering personally from the loss of my mother and the near death of my father. My mother, Doris Rose, passed away on July 25, 2009, a day before she died, I drove my father to the emergency room in Boca Raton, Florida to have two stents placed in his chest. I hesitantly left my father but while I was in New York I spoke to him about three to four times a day. (I’d already lost my middle brother Jon in July 2001 and would lose my oldest brother Scott about two weeks before my father in January 2010).

The exhibition, while never an exploration of my mother’s death, in fact became that; a pair of the the cards I designed – my mother in her wedding dress – were kept in my father’s daily agenda and calendar.

And as the final pieces came together – I narrated the entire event to my father.

He kept asking if I was getting paid for it, and if not, why do it? It was almost impossible to explain, but I told him that sometimes people make art because they have to, and that this was such an instance. What struck me, I told him, was the generosity of hundreds of people; this was not like any other group show ever produced. There were works from grandmothers who had never shown their work anywhere, and 10-year-old boys who were more interested in climbing trees than drawing them, but we had those works, too. It was astonishing to see the show all set up – 7 long rows of boxes, four across, lined up and down the gallery in lanes. Indeed it was like a garden, or a cemetery depending upon your point of view.

I had the sense there would be many people, and at 6 pm when the exhibition opened you could feel the space warm up.

Artists and visitors from Europe, Los Angeles, Texas, Mexico, Canada and all over New York flooded the space and began collecting the works. One last artist, Stephanie Sakson handed me her handmade works – a To Do list. It was a great piece and I was very happy to have it in the show.

The television camera was set up and the images of the thickening crowd streamed out over the net; I pulled folks who spoke French, German, Spanish and Italian in front of the camera and asked them to narrate to the world. Soon the exhibition space was too crowded and we had to manage the door; a line formed that went up the block from Spring to Prince.

There were more than 600 people waiting to get in. I walked the line and apologized for the wait, but no one – not one person – was upset. “We love this,” they said.

“This is a great line.”

Inside the gallery, the crowd pushed the boxes to the edges of the space and continued working away at the boxes of cards, picking them up, and taking them home…like vultures pecking at carrion, or relatives fighting over the jewelry of the deceased. It was simply human nature and wildly fascinating. Hundreds of photos documented the activity.

Rob White poster for MUBE Brazil

For the last full on exhibition, the show in Seattle curated by Kathleen McHugh at Almendra Sandoval’s Quetzalcoatl Gallery, I contributed like I have in many of the other exhibitions – by offering to speak to Kathleen and offering up a handful of ideas she might be able to use. One idea was to include a musical set by a friend Jacques Migeon whose band is local to SeTiajuana Exhibition Poster Ben Elmer Brown Poster attle and whose repertoire could include TIAJUANA, MEXICO. BEN IS 11 YEARS OLD. a dozen Grateful Dead songs.

When my father died not more than six months later in a Miami Hospital intensive care unit on January 22, 2010, I found myself sitting alone in his house in Boca Raton, staring at the portrait of my mother.

There was now no one left alive in my immediate family. I was alone and left to consider not only my own life, but theirs as well.

Since the A Book About Death project launched, there have been many exhibitions, videos, posters, essays, letters and visits. The experience has been a deep and rich one for me personally and one that has resonated with many of the more than 5000 artists who have thus far participated in the project. Each artist/curator and space owner/curator, has organized a specific artist call, launched a site, linked to other sites and created a fascinating echo of a project that began simply on a cold January night.

Each artist/curator has pulled together artists, musicians and visuals and produced a local manifestation of a global

the New York show with each artist and installation, performance and still photos created by Brazilian artist Angela Ferrara sets to the wonderful music of Praan by composer Garry Schyman, is running up hits on YouTube. Collectors have generously lent their works to exhibitions in Brazil, South Carolina and Croatia. And it goes on and on.

(Those details, along with photos and essays on the installations and the ongoing thoughts about the project from a wide range of people is all archived on the site: abookaboutdeatharchive.blogspot.com)

phenomenon.

What occurred to me then was that the project had created a very large community, and that community it turned out would end up setting the stage for exhibitions and re-stagings of A Book About Death in more than 25 cities over the next few years across the planet – from California to São Paulo, to Wales and Croatia to Italy to Nebraska to Louisiana and elsewhere. Sets of the New York City exhibition are now in the collections of MoMA New York, LACMA, MoMA Wales and other public institutions. A video of

The second was to offer a sculptural work as my art contribution (most of the exhibitions add a new call for works to be mailed into the venues). Mine was a piece I produced in Paris and exhibited at my show GOD & COUNTRY. The work consisted of a 1960s French telephone hidden in a painted white cardboard box. I pulled the mouth and earpiece out and let it dangle. Then I wrote on the box: Talk to God. It would be my public phone piece suitable for all locations religious, public and private.

Hung on the wall at STORIE in Paris where I debuted my new collage works, Talk To God was a huge hit; everyone had their photos taken talking to God. I offered Talk To God to the Seattle exhibition, thinking this might touch upon a lot of difference issues concerning prayer, nonsense, dada, death and of course life.

Maybe, for the next project I could do A Phone Book About Death. Or maybe just finish with the world’s largest mail art exhibition in Paris, London or Tokyo.

Write or call for details.

– Matthew Rose, Paris, France.

INDEX

Erin Kobe, Rochester, NY

Eva Brunner, Berlin, Germany 80

Adriana Harman, Seattle, Washington

40

Anouk Rawkson, Seattle, Washington

191

Angela Ferrara, São Paulo, Brazil

Gary A. Bibb, Denver, Colorado 82 Grace Graupe-Pillard, Keyport, New Jersey

42

Andre Pace, Phoenix, Arizona 46 Annie Zeybekoglu, Boston, Massachusetts 48 Ania Gilmore, Boston, Massachusetts 48

Brett “Flip” Austin, Seattle, Washington 64 54 58

62

98

100

Jennifer Gray, Jacksonville, Florida

BERRY BREMER / MUSICIAN Seattle WA

58

COLM McCARTHY, Wisconsin 66

102

68

72

Donna Merry, Brentwood, California 74

106

Jeremy Waltman, Philadelphia Pennsylvania Jo Olive, Uki, Northern NSW, Australia Jack Cymber, Tel Aviv, Israel

Dan McCormack, Poughkeepsie, New York 70

76

96

Jane Hsiaoching Wang, Boston, Massachusetts 104 65

Eleanor I Bennett

94

Jadranka Carluccio Grbic, Croatian born/ Italian

jana l bussanich, Colorado Springs, Colorado

Claire Lewis Evans, Tuscaloosa, Alabama

Deborah Goldman, Key West, Florida

90

Horacio Luís Carrena, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Jamie Newton, Oregon

Chris Day, Jeremiah, Kentucky 60

David Welch, Boston, Massachusetts

Heather Matthew, NSW Australia

James Hathaway, Schaumburg, Illinois

59

Christelle Montus, Swiss Federation

88

Herb Sundvall, Seattle, Washington 94

Bibiana Padilla Maltos, California, USA/Mexico 52

CHOROLOCO / MUSICIANS

Gregory Martens, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin 86 Fran Gallo, Seattle WA

Carolina Tedesco, Key West, Florida

84

Greg Drake, Schaumburg , Illinois 89

Amarildo Correa Sao Caetano Do Sul, Sp - Brazil 44

C.T. Chew, Seattle, Washington

78

110

112

Karen Alekyan, Gyumri, Armenia

114

Kathleen McHugh, Seattle, Washington Kit Boyce, California USA

108

118

122

Kristina Moravec, Seattle, Washington

124

Lawrence Charles Miller, Bellefonte, Pennsylvania

128

Liliana Parra, Argentina

Rick Clark, Seattle Wa

128

168

Lisa Davidson, Belford, New Jersey 130

Sarah C. Ritchey, Seattle, Washington

Lorenzo Basile, Sarno, Italy

Seeking Kali: “Seeking Kali is three artists:

132

LuAnn Palazzo, New York, New York

172

William Evertson (USA), Ria Vanden Eynde (Belgium)

134

Lynn Skordal, Mercer Island, Washington 136

and Susan Shulman (Canada)

Mailarta, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Shelly M Stewart, Albion, Washington

138

174 178

Mara Thompson, Santa Monica, California 140

Shirley Hathaway, Schaumburg, Illinois

Margaret Balderama, Seattle, Washington 141

Snappy, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada

Matthew Rose, Paris, France

SIN FRONTERAS / MISICIANS Seattle WA

142

Melanie Harrington, Northern California

181

147

Steve Dalachinsky, NYC

186

Michael Hubbard, Pullman, Washington

146

Stewart Edwards, Caergwrle, Wales

Michele Principato Trosso, Capizzi, Italy

148

Susan Shulman, Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Miriam Brumer, NY, NY

Tonia S. Areheart , Seattle WA

150

Mitsu Sundvall, Seattle WA

Virginia Paula Cappabianca, Italy

151

185

Noemi Silvera Garcia, Montevideo, Uruguay

154

Patricia Kranenberg, East Setauket, New York

156

190

Willie Marlowe, Albany, New York 194 Xiomáro, New York

196

158

Paula Shaughnessy, Wayne, New Jersey 160

Mwanzo Proud Farmers

Ranjan Engti, Guwahati, India 162

TANGLETOWN STRING BAND / MISICIANS 198

Renee Creager O’Brien, Hadley, New York Ria Vanden Eynde, Belgium

166

Rich Fought, Seattle, Washington

170

165

188

175

William Evertson, East Hampton, Connecticut

Nikki Soppelsa, Berea, Ohio 152

Paula Franca, São Paulo, Brazil

180

Sonja Benskin Mesher RCA, Dolgellau, Wales 182

144

Michael Harford North Manchester, Indiana

176

199

192

A Conversation with

Death.

ìThere is only one God... .. and his name is Death. ... and there is only one thing we say to Death. ... Not Today.î I have been called many names throughout time.

From the dawn of light itself, I have existed.

I am the shadow, the killer, the mercenary and the merciful. I am Male and Female, Santa Muerte and Lilith herself.

I am Death.

I am loved, hated, celebrated and cursed.

I am the Mistress and the Guardian, God and the essence of the Universe.

You have these grand ideas of me, from very beautiful and seductive to red scales and horns.

But, let the record show, I am magnificently adorned in your lies. Loathed, Feared and embraced, I am the only thing which exists even after everything else ceases.

I teach you about life, love, appreciation, gratitude and humility. I reflect to you, your fragile state, impermanence and ignorance. I celebrate the moment you are born, knowing that eventually you will end up in my embrace.

I touch everyone. And, every Thing.

I am infectious and seductive, celebrated and seeked. I take from you your most beloved and give you respite from suffering. And yet, my most powerful weapon is my ability to seduce you to do my bidding. I am a Magician, Master and Artist. I create with your diseased, discarded and bone-ridden beauty.

And yet, I ask you: ìWhat is your price? ìWhat is more precious than life? Presuming a persons life is worth living?î ìWhat do you value the most? What if I took everything away, what would you be left with?

That is what I want. If it was your wife? gone.

Your money and retirement? vanished. Peace and love? I took that too. What is left? What is that secret thing?

There, yes that.

That is what I want. That is my price.î ìWould you rather forget?

No?

Then I will make you forget again and again and again.î ìSo then, I ask you good Sir, What is your price?î ìIs that it?î ìThat dusty abandoned thing over there in the corner?î ìThen why the hell arenít you living like it is?î

starvation. And it’s always the innocents who suffer the most. Most of these souls are grateful for my arrival. I am the end to the pain and the suffering.

After all, I am their relief.

They call for me. You see, I canít stop. Like a bloodlust vampire, they call to me, from their soul, to mine.

I am the emotion of a steel driven snowflake.

What do I mean to you?

In the Pulitzer Prize winning book, The Denial of Death, Ernest Becker speaks of me when he says: “ ...the idea of death, the fear of it, haunts the human animal like nothing else; it is a mainspring of human activity--activity designed largely to avoid the fatality of death, to overcome it by denying in some way that it is the final destiny for man.”

But, my dear little human, I am so much more.

I am Le Petite Mort, Enlightenment, and Ecstasy. Deep and wide, baby, deep and wide.

You love me baby, and you hate yourself for that. ... and oh, I love you too! I love you enough to do my bidding for me. To hold me in your hands and squeeze, squeeze hard, harder than anything you have every squeezed in your life.

Squeeze until your hands bleed.

Then, take comfort. Comfort in the belief that I am a warm blanket. A blanket stitched with gilded ìHail Marysî and platinum seams of ìYou are Healedî. but, sometimes, you crack...

Crack like the ìI regret nothing Iíve done, of the lives Iíve taken. It wasnít by some spiritual awakening, or by religious rebirth. It was by my knowing, intimately knowing, life is too short. Like in some strange way, it is as if the lives Iíve saved more than make up for the losses.î and yet you have guilt gorilla’s smashing around on your insides.

Talk about a bull in the China shop, pfffft.

I mean, I understand, it is very difficult to deal with that God over there, That god of War.

I am a large collection of individual pieces. Like a trapped growing organism. Individual ideas assimilated into a larger scope of beautiful deadly work.

Look for the beauty in death. The growth, acceptance and surrender to the divinely inevitable.

Live the legacy, it is only through death could He be more a person, in more relationships, deeper and stronger relationships.

It has been said that we are not truly prepared to live until we are prepared to die. Life assumes a greater meaning and purpose when we fully appreciate the fact we are going to die.

Our death is real and will be marked by a specific day on the calendar. All the days leading up to that one assume a special significance. Time passes so quickly.

When we prepare to live with the full knowledge that we will die, we stop taking life and the people we love for granted. Our own lives, and our significant relationships, become authentic.

I lead you wandering blind towards a cliff. None of us know which step it will be that will cause us to fall, we only are certain of one thing -that we are getting closer to the edge.

Once we are over the edge, we can never get back. Such is life, and such is the fact that we will meet one day.

You can do it, I believe in you.

Everyone can learn something, and not necessarily anything; from the phenomenon of birth; but from death we can learn everything. It is that little transition in between which means the most. ìThere is only one God...

He is so horrifically brutal sometimes. The blood, misery and utter stupidity of it all. It’s always the same, you know; the screams, the pain, the illness that follows, the

.... and his name is Death. ... and there is only one thing we say to Death.

–––

I was given this task... ...to introduce a book. Not just any book, but The Book About Death. A book which has been a traveling art exhibit, and is now in print. This book you are now reading.

This book about death.

But, how does one introduce a book about death? A book about everything a living human knows nothing about, without first sitting down to speak with Death itself?

But yet, there in lies the rub.

Humans are strange, distracting ourselves from the important with the profane and dramatic. Prancing about in life, using their time like a $2 hooker. Cheap.

Yet, when Death comes calling, we ride her hard, mostly trying to get our money’s worth that we wasted. It is those intimate individual moments, a grandness of the totality of this work which is captured in this stunning book.

Here, through these eyes, through these artists, is the scope of human history, those sites where our laws were made, our philosophies honed, our battles won.

The read cant read the very stone our ancestors walked or gawk at the bed where the hero slept and the desk where he wrote. All through the eyes of death.

It is a collection of stunning tapestry of the many threads of humanity. The trials and tribulations and our success in overcoming them to become the shining example of human achievement in defiance of Death itself. It is in the inspiration of those grandscenes, few of us dedicate the time to pursue the rainbow’s trail to this continent’s distant horizons.

The contemplation of death. A meditation of glorious Death. A handshake in an artist’s search for the beauty of the natural into the almost religious fervor of a pilgrimage.

And yet, after all of it, how does write an introduction for The Book About Death?

You cannot converse with death, no...

Death only speaks, and you shall only listen.

The beauty of the collection is that each of these artists listened. They contemplated, touched, meditated and lived with Death.

Take a moment, sit down, and listen with your eyes in appreciation to this conversation with Death.

RAE JONES Armed with a MBA, Rae spent 14 long years in the stress-filled environment of corporate America.

Since 2004, she has been featured as a speaker at many businesses, continuing education gatherings and internationally recognized colleges on Stress and Financial Management.

Editor and publisher of a quarterly magazine, she is an author, an accomplished ghostwriter, and has a passion for adventures.

Please check her website for the latest information.

beginanadventure.com

12 SPIRITS SEATTLE USA

Pau l D a l h q u i s t Jen n a L e s k e l a Eri c T o d d Dai s h a K i s s e l Jen n i f f e r Y a t e s Cec i l i a C o n c e p c i o n A l v a r e z Edu a r d o T i l l m a n Iik k a K e r a n e n Ro s e K e r a n e n Jen i f f e r E t s i t t y Sie n n a Alm e n d r a S a n d o v a l

16 18 20 22 24 26 28 30 32 34 36 38

PHOTO BY KRISTINA MORAVEC

ABADSEATTLE.BLOGSPOT.COM

QUETZALCOATL G A L L E R Y

In the spirit of the NYC exhibition, artists were asked to create a “page� for the unbound book about death.

The art exhibited in Seattle will be archived in the permanent gallery collection.

The art will be available for future exhibition opportunities to share the Seattle pages from the global unbound book about death.

Since the original show iNYC, A BOOK ABOUT DEATH has become a global phenomenon, as well as becoming part of the permanent col-

lections of the Museum of Modern Art and the LA County Museum of Art Rsearch Library.

The project has been exhibited at MoMA Wales, MUBE Brazil, The Otis College of Art and Design, The Queens Museum (NY), among many other venues from small churches to universities,arts festivals and art spaces across Europe and the United States.

For more information about the scope and history of the project, please visit the archive

abookaboutdeatharchive.blogspot.com

PAUL DALHQUIST Art has been a part of my life. Painting and drawing were my media and my identity as an artist trough the 1960’s, my thirties. T he opportunity to teach photography classes provoked some serious study and work in this medium, wich quickly become my real form of expression.

How natural to show what I see, and how vulnerable. Working in 35mm format with Ilford HP5 film shot at 1600ASA using a Canon EOS 300 with a 28-80 zoom lens, I care to celebrate the miracle we all are. These images may help people accept themselves and each other, and make this world safer, saner and more just.

Death is different than anyone supposes‌ Even a sudden violent death must have an instant of release and freedom.

JENNA LESKELA An explorer and embracer of life, always open to the experience of following her dreams, passion and love.

DIG THIS UP! STIR THIS UP! THIS BLACKNESS DENSE YET UNTOUCHABLE

Forever looking for ways to present the beauty of the world ... even through death.

YOUR PERFECT SWEET MYSTERY GIVING LIFE THROUGH THE CURSES OF OTHERS THE MOURNING OF OTHERS EVER GIVING REGENERATING EXISTENCE BASK IN THIS DARK LIGHT IT’S OPEN PALE FACE GLOWING AND INVITING YOU YOU ARE ALWAYS WELCOME AS YOU HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE PIECES OF YOU HAVE BEEN HERE BEFORE IGNORED, MOSTLY SO DIG IT UP! TURN IT OVER! ABSORB YOUR LIFE AS YOUR ANCESTORS HAVE GIVEN IT TO YOU IN DEATH YOU BEAUTIFUL ANGEL YOU BEAUTIFUL BEING.

‘Life does not cease to be funny when people die. Any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh.�

-- George Bernard Shaw

ERIC TODD

“ God is Dead.” Nietzsche I am under the influence Of dead artists….

And all of the dead metaphors.

A book about death is The artist’s voice.

Questioning Authority.

Questioning Religion.

Questioning Holy Relics.

Questioning The Blood Sacrifice.

William S. Burroughs shot Bullet holes in literature, I shoot Bibles.

I Crucify the Pope, My sacrilegious war Is creating Altarpieces After Francis Bacon, Howling wild dogs screaming in oil paint. .

Iconoclastic Artist Eric Todd Born 1961 Bachelor of fine arts in Painting University of Oregon 1980’s watercolor landscapes of cemeteries, Began a lifetime study of gravestone rubbings Themes Iconoclastic Artist Eric Todd Christ enthroned Dead last supper Dead Buddha Dead Mary “All great truths begin as blasphemies.”

erictoddstudios@gmail.com

DAISHA KISSEL

life lover organizer home healer space shifter connector seer feng shui decorator spirit lifter intentional environment maker deep talker vision creator fun timer being

O u r s p i r i t s doorway to the next...

A BOOK ABOUT DEATH

ELEMENTSOFEVOLUTION.COM

JENNIFER YATES

C e r a m i c a n d m etal forms with function Jennifer A. Yates is an artist and educator living in Washington. She currently teaches full-time fine arts, instructs privately and manages Yates Fine Arts. Yates is published in 500 Bowls, The Best of Ceramics, and shows her organic porcelain and precious metal forms in local galleries. She received her BFA in studio arts and BS in art education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout where she also was an artist in residence.

yatesfinearts@hotmail.com yatesfinearts.com

Death is the spiral of life and drift wood is symbolic to death.

Driftwood begins with the life of a tree, breaks with the wind and spirals into the forest with water washing it away, lifeless shifting into form. Rebirth is firing a wood kiln as part of the creative process of my art work. During an Anagama firing clay becomes alive with five cords of wood and 2400 degrees Fahrenheit morphing when fluid in flames that are dancing and licking each pot as the red hot river runs through the kiln and lastly dances out the chimney. The death of wood settling as ash onto the porcelain body creates various microscopic surfaces showing the endless spiral.

CECILIA CONCEPCION ALVAREZ Cecilia Concepci贸n Alvarez was born in National City, CA. Her mother is Mexicana and her father is Cubano.

This piece is one in a series of works attempting to create discourse on how we/society reward/glorify the entitled predator. These predatory norms are exemplified in popular cinema, media news coverage, television programming, the behavior of our financial institutions, cultural/religious/political norms and the war machine. Brutal power is glorified as excellent and ever present.

Modern societies have normalized and justified violent predatory behavior as acts of a superior evolved intelligence/a symbol of power/excellence, which is entitled to whatever they desire.

In this brutal vernacular of power, persons or entities who do not seek power through brutality, who abide by a more diplomatic and humane mode of behavior are expendable, weak and; are an acceptable sacrifice to brutality.

I use the image of women, not to exemplify just the gender, but those aspects of ourselves that we negate or deny in order to survive in a comodifying, mass consumption world view.

I use the female figure to exemplify cultures and entities whose ideals are to live in harmony with the natural world, which live a sustainable lifestyle and support a just society.

I hope my art beckons the viewer to reflect on what and who they have sacrificed to live as we all do.

Cecilia Concepci贸n Alvarez ceciliaalvarez.com chicanaartist@aol.com

EDUARDO TILLMAN

Iikka Keranen Is a Finnish-born designer and artist living in Seattle, Washington. His distinct pen & ink technique draws inspiration from his experience as a photographer and often uses his own photography as a starting point. For ABAD, he chose as the subject a grave monument located in the Montmartre Cemetery in Paris, France.

A young man lies as he died, a reminder of his tragic end permanently carved in stone and carrying the strength of emotion across the centuries.

Rose Ker채nen

Seattle based experimental digital artist and model. Rose started working with Almendra Sandoval as a figure model before involving herself more seriously with ABAD. Having lost a dear friend to a violent crime Rose found ABAD to be a cathartic and healing project. She is interested in participating in more artist collaborations especially pro-female activist projects or nearly anything involving the dark arts (particularly deca and Gothic

Fashion).

JENNIFER ETSITTY I am Jennifer Etsitty, born the from Dziłtł’ahnii, Mountain Recess People clan and from Tábąąhá, the Edge Water clan.

I am half Navajo and half anglo. My dad is full Navajo from the Navajo Reservation, Arizona. My mom is anglo and from upstate New York. I was born and grew up on the Navajo Reservation. At the age of 15, I had the opportunity to go to high school in Boston MA, where I fell in love with photography.

Learned how to print and process my own film and print in darkroom; where I admire street documentary and city life. I went to college at University of Arizona, Tucson Arizona, graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Photography. Currently living in Seattle, Washington, continuing my interest in photography.

My photographic image is about my mother’s parents, Richard and Elizabeth Cole; My Grandparent’s Love.

I created this collage of my grandparents to honor their life and love for each other.

They met in 1941 on a blind date at a dance at the Meredith Hotel, New York. They loved to dance. Betty was in her second year of college. Richard was working at GE as a tool die maker, before he went to war, World War II. He was in the Navy. They got married a year later on the same date they met, June 26, 1942. Married at the Presbyterian Church of Andes, New York. On June 26, 1992 they celebrated their unity of 50th Anniversary.

Their celebration was a joyus occasion. They

were born in the same year, 1920. They died within 10 years of each other. Every summer my family and I would go visit Grammie and Papa at their farm house. I cherished every moment with my grandparents. I love and miss you Grammie and Papa.

jenetsitty@hotmail.com

SIENNA Take the trip... one by one the pieces of the crustacean appear... dancing crunching among the rocks and weeds of the sea. Collecting in one hand... now two are full. Place it within the jewelry box under the drivers seat. One beach two beach ... sand and shells. For where there’s one, there’s all. And nothing. A trip to the healing springs ... the water of the gods ... Soak your wire, rethread your light flare. A trip In & Under the drivers seat will do you well.

SIENNA is a graphic designer, painter and assistant event producer living in Seattle WA. Musing on the supposed ordinary vs the out-ofthe-ordinary interactions between what technology brings to the human perspective and what naturally lies within. Enjoying, reflecting and connecting the dots.

ARTBYSIENNA.COM

Int duct

Rae Jon duct

With love, with spiritual intelligence, Heroic efforts are being made everywhere to raise the alarm and bear witness to ecological destruction, disease, poverty, genocide, violent conflict, and hostile aggression.

An awakened consciousness is radically open to transformation at all levels, from you the individual to the collective. We know that transformation is also more than mental formulas and good ideas.

It touches something very deep, something so essential that it affects both heart and mind.

More than anything, transformation requires courage, the courage to face the truth that your own being has great depth.

I believe you must also have the courage to face that in the midst of disillusion, dysfunctional hierarchies, dying powers, wars over beliefs and resources in the midst of systemic breakdown and the collapse of unsustainable behaviors and world views.

There is something stirring that offers hope, that offers the possibility of personal, social, and even global transformation.

This is true in the health of an individual as it is in a family, as it is so for a society, and as we now see, for the Earth in its entirety. Holistic health inevitably addresses whole systems.

We see a new breed of economists, psychologists, scientists, and spiritual activists, have begun to embody it in a healing, a new of interdependence, in a movement that lays out the vision and practice of economic and ecological sustainability. We see that consciousness itself is an almost limitless resource of creativity and compassion.

It is a movement that seeks to protect biodiversity and that honors human diversity and cultural plurality. It takes courage to heal.

It takes courage to speak on behalf of the whole, to be a voice, a full expression for the Earth and for its diverse species, for all human life, for a consciousness that knows that peace is our inheritance and that our responsibility is to reveal our interdependence.

It takes courage for science and spirituality to dialogue and illuminate new possibilities for humankind.

It takes courage to reach towards the manifestation of a vision that transforms enemies into allies and disillusionment into sustenability.

A complex adaptive system in which global awareness is applied to local concerns.

Here we need models of a possible society, one in which masculine and feminine, science and spirituality, economics and ecology, civic participation and personal growth come together in an integral and independent matrix for the benefit of all.

Rae J

And what with the inevitable cross-fertilization of the wisdom and practices of world spiritual traditions, more and more people are gaining empower access to our being and becoming. As a new story begins, the mythopoetic understandings of many cultures rise and converge. Archetypal ideas and symbols spring into consciousness or are consciously sought in the popular culture.

ALMENDRA SANDOVAL ENRIQUEZ, Mexican Artist Graphic designer, painter, photographer, curator, editor, dreamer...quetzalcoaltgallery owner

almendra@ALMENDRASANDOVAL.COM

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ALMENDRASANDOVAL.COM

ADRIANA HARMAN SEATTLE USA

My piece for A Book About Death, Seattle gave me truly an extraordinary experience. It became this cathartic way for me to relate to the deaths that have happened in my life, in such a short span of time. I don’t know that I will really ever come to terms with any of the deaths - to those that meant so much to me. But I feel it allowed me to gain a new understanding of something familiar to us all. This project became a way to honor those I love, it became a process through which in the end gave me some of the solace I had lost within myself.

Adriana Harman Lives in Seattle, WA

adrianaheart@yahoo.com

ANGELA FERRARA BRAZIL

Born in Sao Paulo, painter, architect, designer and curator.

Graduate in architecture and urban design in 2001 and postgraduate in Communication and Arts with emphasis in interior design in 2006 in Sao Paulo.

In parallel to her work she’s also dedicated to visual poetry and performance grounded in Fluxus philosophie. Angela Ferrara is part of a generation of artists who seek to return to the conceptual aspect of 1960s, to search for new techniques in a extensive research ofornamental patterns.

Her work makes references to brazilian artists Aldemir Martins (1822-2006) and Burle Marx (1909-1994). The artist participates in exhibitions and collections in United Estates, Europe, Brazil. Angela Ferrara works in a decorative patterning, influenced by the fauna and flora of Brazil, to create a work psychedelic and geometric, but at the same time is organized and rhythmic.

angelaferrara.com

AMARILDO CORREA BRAZIL

I am 46 years old and a self-taught photographer living in Brazil, since my adolescence I began to become interested in photography.

I joined two pleasures in my life, travel and photography, both has led me to be in wonderful places, meet people and enjoy every moment, my objective is always to show what surrounds us and goes unnoticed, it can be a landscape, a tree, a person or anything that catches my attention.

My artwork for the exhibition A BOOK ABOUT DEATH, is the figure of an angel holding the symbol of penance, this angel is in the Church of St. Francis of Penance in S達o Jo達o del Rey - State of Minas Gerais - Brazil.

This angel was carved by the famous Brazilian artist named Aleijadinho, he was a sculptor and architect who lived in Colonial age, his artworks are in many churches of Brazil.

ANDRE PEACE AZ USA

Orignal from New York City Self taught by street arts & some local galleries ,as an artist I have sat in for libary readind talks class on interpertation of classical usage of colors & drawings , both in Abstract & Contemporary works ,than looked at a small class in New York For Drawing & still figure avarage studies I feel 6 months was my time . A statement I use for my work is “ A retrospective reinforced by the remains of the verbal images... in indentifying these elements they are seen afresh leaving visible traces of Contemporary or Modern Art . My works Viewed In New York City Time Square Art Alliance Art Exhibition & Art Program , New York City Cultural Affaires (DCLA) Image Registry, New York City Post Cards From The Edge <silent Auction Visuale Aids Event> , Air Anmorphouse Image Race 2010<selected artist works Archived> , Ohio State University Art Auction & Art Alliance <alzhmer event> , Ohio State University Mail art collection <library>, Elon University Small Works Exhibition <archived Image> , Mass University Art Auction Cataloge < Artist registry> , Mase University colorado mail Art exhbition <libary Archive> , Southern Indiana University Art & Storage <archive>, East Geogia college/color coded exhibit, Millkin University mail art Exhibt & sileint art auction <archive>, Albertus Maganus college mail art Exhibit , Act Art 8 censored {London} <artist registry>, Def/media {germany} sound cloud.com , elmur .net {voice visuale event}, Art On Track Survey .

INTERVIEW {REVIEW} Published Literal Arts Eber & Wein Publishing co.

Art Hash.com< Interviewer Sivy221@aol.com> Arts Journal Apropos {editor@gmail.com} “works up for review” Arts journal [ rollins College /literal arts review] Spec journal editor@gmail.com “reviewed” published art works Stamp Arts magazine.com Arts medica Reviewing works 2012 literal arts & visual arts American journal of nursing poems reviewing 2012 Fluenr press Published literal Arts <france> Papirmasse poetry exhibit Chicago Cultural Center Chicago rooms < poetry exhibit>

RESEARCH Seina Art Institue Mail Art Exhibition & Archives Researched mail art Thesis Art Theory & Critics Paper {University of Barcelona}<Spain> Researched mail art Finland <mina Rvokono> Wendell Libary mail art Exhibition & Archives Yamouth Public library Mail art collection World Art Bay County Public library <exhibit & Image registry> Hello Post Cards From Europe < Artist works & bio statement published> Any Penny Project{Mail Art [ Artist Stamp] poject Russia} Bienele Contemporary Art Artist Stampstz.com< image registry >series planned partners #3 Museum & Collections Ontological Arts Museum <collection Archive> Series print Exhibition (Yam) Yellow Stone Arts Museum Exhibition & Auction <registry> series exhibition Van Abbe Museum {netherland} Mail Art collection <archives> series planned Partners (stamped) Modesto Arts Museum Mail Art Exhibition & Collection <series dry point > Planned partners Alterboro Arts Museum Art Auction & Benefit < image registry& library> series <abstract> Saginaw Arts Museum Art Auction 8 works showing < archive> Masur Arts Museum Art Auction & Exhbition series The New York Minute Artist stamp Museum < series A5 planned partners series #3>

ARTREVIEW.com ISSUU.com CollectorsWeekly.com ANDRE PACE

Evidence Vol. 537, 2011 Collaborative work by

Ania Gilmore AND Annie Zeybekoglu Medium: Al-Mutanabbi poems, found Arabic text, Found text, ash, wax, graphite, black thread, bookboard, image transfer, waxed linen Dimensions: 6.5W x 9.5H x 2.5D in. Evidence Vol. 537 is the echo of the senseless bombing on March 5, 2007 of Al-Mutanabbi Street in Baghdad, the historic center of the Baghdad literary, cultural, and intellectual community. One patiently gathered up pages that survived the blast, and then brought them back to life bound together, as if someday they could be used not to just bring the bombers to justice, but also to account for their attempt to kill books and the culture that surrounds them. The thread harkens back to human hair, as the resonance of lives lost in that timeless moment after the blast, one moment of silence before the first scream was heard, before the first bits of flesh and pages began to rain down from the sky.

Bio for Annie Zeybekoglu Inspired by her New York roots, Annie Zeybekoglu works in a variety of media, ranging from book arts to mixed media painting and drawing. She received her undergraduate training at Smith College, and completed her masters degree at Harvard University. She has taught drawing, painting, textile design and book design for more than twenty years, and has worked extensively as a free-lance illustrator and graphic designer for numerous galleries, educational, architectural, and community service clients. She has been designing and making Artist Books for over 30 years.

Annie works from her Boston studio, where she is a member of the United South End Artists (USEA), Her work has received recognition both in the US and abroad, and is featured in private collections in Istanbul, Turin, San Francisco, Boston, New York, and Baghdad.

anniezey.com anniezey@gmail.com

ANN CUMMINGS

insidethemusic.com

Ann Cummings, pianist, artist Ann Cummings is a pianist known for her visual interpretations of classical music, and her connection to the visual arts sang itself onto canvas beginning in 1992.

Cummings’ paintings derive from the harmonic relationships of music both dissonant and consonant. Her works on canvas frequently explore the structural interplay of light, form, and color in the same manner that music explores the domains of friction, structure, and movement. Ultimately her paintings are a journey into the reality of infinite creativity, the state of being separate and connected simultaneously, and the incredible freedom and variety of expression(s) that enables.

As a painter, Cummings is an award winAnn Cummings, pianist, artist

Ann Cummings is a pianist known for her visual interpretations of classical music, and her connection to the visual arts sang itself onto canvas beginning in 1992. Cummings’ paintings derive from the harmonic relationships of music both dissonant and consonant. Her works on canvas frequently explore the structural interplay of light, form, and color in the same manner that music explores the domains of friction, structure, and movement. Ultimately her paintings are a journey into the reality of infinite creativity, the state of being separate and connected simultaneously, and the incredible freedom and variety of expression(s) that enables.

As a painter, Cummings is an award winning artist and has exhibited her work in galleries on the East and West coast of the United States.

“Conversing with God on the telephone is my perception of creative, extroverted prayer. God, is partially my own mind, and partially something that is unknown to me.

Yet, like a phone, I can travel distance with communication…communication that addresses the serious distances of TIME, limitation, and death.

Death is the absolute unknown that cannot be accessed even by God, because a conscious mind cannot know death.

So, death is that distance between eternity and mortality, the awareness that life could end, accompanied by the knowledge of individual deaths, and with the knowledge that life itself hasn’t ended yet.

This awareness of limitation is not death, but rather the birth of feelings…the awareness of mortality accompanied with the desire to live.

This zone of friction is my conversation with God, a distance that avails itself to unending conversations.”

11-11-11

BIBIANA PADILLA MALTOS USA/MEXICO

Writer and conceptual artist closely tied to the Fluxus movement. She has published “Equilibrios”, 1992, “Intrucciones para cocinar”,2001, “Los Demonios de la Casa Mayor”, 2002, “Los Impersonales”, 2002, “25 ScoreS 25”, 2009, “Mini Poemas”, 2009, “MCA-Chicago Scores”,2011; has curated, exhibited, performed, done residencies, as well as interventions and collaborated in several anthologies, magazines and newspapers across the world.

Cofounder of AVTEXTFEST and AVTEXTPRESS experimental literature projects, Padilla Maltos holds a degree in International Affairs, and a Masters in Marketing. Has coordinated creative writing and experimental literature workshops.

Her work is extremely wide ranging and goes from collage and the reinvention of performances and classic metadramas, to the exploration of visual narratives parallel to literary and political texts, as well as the explorations of the body’s sense in contemporary societies.

As a kid I was always cold. My hands and nose would get so cold that when I complained, my dad used to tell me “only those who are about to die feel cold” to cheer me up, I’m sure, kinda saying there is no way you are cold... I always look at the meaning hidden on everything, how could this be about cheering me up? this is WAY deep WAY beyond the cheer.

For the slaughter house piece, I’ve always enjoy working with the games of affirmations and negations, in this case, a double secret affirmation was the way to go.

Being mexican and our fun relationship with the Death, ABAD was an enjoyable gift.

stamperos Muertos” commemorates artists who made “artistamps” during their lifetimes--Ray Johnson, Dick Higgins, CARL T. CHEW Joki, BusterThe Cleveland, and G. A. Cavelwork “Día de los Artilini among others. It was first issued on El Día de los Muertos in 1998. The sheet has additional gold ink in later versions.

SEATTLE USA

C. T.’s official Website is at www.ctchew. com

C a rl T. Chew / C. T. Chew USA, Born 1948

The work “Día de los Artistamperos Muertos” commemorates artists who made “artistamps” during their lifetimes--Ray Johnson, Dick Higgins, Joki, Buster Cleveland, and G. A. Cavellini among others. It was first issued on El Día de los Muertos in 1998. The sheet has additional gold ink in later versions.

ctchew.com

C A R O L I NA TEDESCO FL USA

I t is human to seek validation of our emotions – to know that others have also experienced depths of feeling that we cannot, or will not, convey in words. It unites us more deeply and meaningfully to one another.

Quixotically, I have always been drawn to cemetery monuments. Love expressed in stone; hopeful expressions of our dreams of immortality. They allow us to demonstrate to the world our capacity for deep love and reverence for another – as well as our sometimes less noble human vanities.

As a fine art photographer, my intention is to convey, with the aid of light, shadow and perspective, not only the technical skill of the artist who crafted the monument, but also that artists deep internal gift – the ability to infuse the witness with the sense of penetrating, evocative stillness; the peace; the pain; the hope; the love; the sensuality; the ‘knees that crumble beneath you’ anguish, that connects the living to those who have passed into the invisible world.

www.Kismet-KeyWest.com

BARRY BREMER J A Z Z E X P E RIMENT SEATTLE USA

m y s p a c e . c o m / barrybremerjazzexperiment

CHOROLOCO

SEATTLE

choroloco@yahoo.com choroloco.com

ChoroLoco also can be seen at art walks and openings as well as theaters such as The Rialto in Tacoma and The Chapel at the Good Shepherds Center. Their music lends itself well to a variety of environments, from festivals such as NW Folk life and Jam Fest in Seattle, First Night in Tacoma and the Ethnic Festival in Lacey to more relaxed events such as the Art in Nature Festival at Camp Long. In addition, ChoroLoco aims to build and preserve community by hosting rodas do choro, jam sessions where musicians of all levels can play together and share musical ideas.

Rosalynn de Roos (clarinet, flute, melodica), founding member of ChoroLoco, can be heard playing Gypsy jazz, free jazz, musical theater, and collaborating with poets, dancers, and multimedia artists. Amy Rubin (accordion) Is a com-

poser, pianist, and accordion player who has written and performed music in all genres â&#x20AC;&#x201C; for the concert stage, jazz ensemble, film, television, and theater, both in the U.S. and abroad.

Stuart Zobel (7 string guitar) is a guitarist, band leader, educator, and composer. Stuart can be seen/heard every spring in Seattleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Moisture Festival.

Marc Smason (trombone), horn player in demand, is also a band leader, composer, and an active performing jazz musician in the Northwest.

Louversia Taylor (panderio, triangle, tambourine), is a percussionist and vocalist, performs throughout the Puget Sound region.

CHRIS DAY KY USA

I am the child that paints outside the lines!

What distinguishes me from other artists is my exploration of all (Mixed Media) mediums, incorporating them into my design concepts which are personalized into sometimes humorous, childlike visuals of brilliant purple skies, mystic realms, personal spiritual beliefs and a forgotten object thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s found in the most peculiar of places.

Chris Day

earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts Degree from The University of Kentucky in 1981, but thinks of himself as an Outsider/ Folk Artist.

A native and resident of Letcher County, KY, his artwork has been exhibited not only locally, but also in New York City, The Art Institute of Chicago, National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, Korea and Museum of Contemporary Art,

Chrisdayart@gmail.com chrisdayart.com

CHRISTE L L E M O N T U S Swiss Federation

Christelle Montus lives and works in Geneva, where she was born in 1973 with French and Swiss citizenship. During her studies, she developed her true passion: painting. Self taught, she turned this passion into the central theme of her life. She began exhibiting in 2002.

Christelle Montus has developed from the beginning an abstract painting style.

Her large oils on canvas express a quest for meaning. Her paintings are essays about the future. In contemporary art, thought and message play a decisive role. Her reflections cannot be separated from her works, they come through clearly from the conception and application of her techniques and methods, with a force implicit in the physical realizations.

Christelle Montus transforms her work into an ongoing search, giving herself the means to develop a repertory in keeping with her visions, her expectations and her own requirements.

www.christellemontus.com

BRETT

”FLIP”

AUSTIN

CLAIRE LEWIS EVANS AL USA

An invitation to feast on other incarnations, The recollection of past lives resurrected from the void.

Fleeting moments arc, dive, swoop, scatter and reassemble Sharing secrets, stories, names What is yours?

Shadows in the mirror, shades of all hue The messenger is in the offing

The moment forms The wave is breakingâ&#x20AC;&#x201D; Brilliant darkness, silent roar.

In the inner chamber a clear light shines.

Dream on, and you miss it.

Piercing radiance awaits opening to take root at the core.

COLM MCCARTHY WI USA

DAVID WELCH MA USA

David Welch is a fine art photographer based on the island of Marthaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Vineyard. His work explores social issues, using large-format photography steeped in conceptual influences from art history and economic theory. His work has been widely published and exhibited both nationally and abroad. David was recently awarded an Honorable Mention in the 2011 Hey Hot Shot! competition and in 2011 he was selected as one of Photolucidaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Critical Mass top 50 photographers. David is a recent graduate of the Savannah College of Art and Design, where he earned his MFA in photography. He lives on the island with his partner Trina and daughter, Camden.

leftfork.net

DAN McCORMACK NY USA

I began photographing the nude with Wendy, my wife, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 1967 while working on my MFA degree in Photography.

Then for over forty years I explored various techniques and processes while photographing the nude as a central theme. I won a NYSCA-CAPS fellowship in Photography in 1982. I began to explore pinhole photography around 1998. I won the Ultimate Eye Foundationâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s grant for Figurative Photography in 2009. I currently head the Photography program at Marist College in Poughkeepsie, New York where I teach photography classes.

This image, Carling _D_4-30-11--10AB, was made at the Barrett Art Center in Poughkeepsie, New York on Worldwide Pinhole Photography Day 2011,.

danmccormack.net /gallery-4/Helen-W Gallery 4 is the most current

DEBORA GOLDMAN FL USA

EDUCATION 1969 BA University of Rochester, NY 1975 MFA Cranbrook Academy of Art, MI AWARDS 2011 South Florida Cultural Consortium Fellowship for Visual & Media Artists 2006 Accepted as artist at The Studios Key West EXHIBITIONS 2011 PRESENCE Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, Florida A BOOK ABOUT DEATH, Quetzalcoatl Gallery, Seattle, Washington SOUTH FLORIDA CULTURAL CONSORTIUM EXHIBIT, Art and Culture Center of Hollywood, Florida BOUNDLESS AMBITION - Part Curiosity Part Vision The Thompson Gallery, The Cambridge School of Weston, Weston, Massachusetts 2010 REJOICE Lucky Street Gallery, Key West, Florida A BOOK ABOUT DEATH, C. W. Post College, Greenvale, New York SPHERIS GALLERY, Hanover, New Hampshire TEXAS NATIONAL 2010 Stephen F. Austin State University, Nacogdoches, Texas LUCKY AGAIN

The rosy liquid color of the pomegranate seeds suggests all that is luscious, abundant and vital. The branches and the dried seedpods from the Cassia tree are brittle, dark and dead. Juxtaposing these images, combined with the repetition of the words A Book About Death is intended to suggest the ever-repeating cycle in life from vibrancy to decay. Rather than leading to despair, it is my hope that viewing this image reveals the inherent strength and beauty in lifeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s continuum.

DONNA MERRY CA USA

bee-merry@comcast.net

Hi! I am Donna Merry, an artist/writer living and working in a rural area of Northern California. I learned about the open call for artists to participate in the Quetzalcoatl Gallery exhibition showing of ‘A Book About Death Seattle’ through an artist friend of mine who lives in Washington. Being that Halloween is my favorite time of the year and the call was brought to my attention around the end of October 2011, the time was right to pull out my pencils, paints, and imagination and to go to work!

My pencils worked hard through revision after revision to get the sketch of the skull proportion correctly rendered. When layer after layer of the graphite revealed the grinning skull with the white eyes and glaring teeth, I was finally satisfied with my work.

The image of ‘Boneita’, my rendition of a Day of the Dead image, came naturally and freely.

Her image is one that had resided in the back of my head for quite a while (she was glad to be put to canvas) and this acrylic painting was completed very quickly.

I have participated in international mail art exhibitions/installations throughout Spain, Italy, Columbia and Uruguay, but this is the first time my art has been exhibited in the states.

ELEANOR L E O N N E B E N N E T T

Eleanor Leonne Bennett is a 16 year old internationally award winning photographer and artist who has won first places with National Geographic, The World Photography Organisation, Natureâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best Photography, Papworth Trust, Mencap, The Woodland trust and Postal Heritage.

Her photography has been published in the Telegraph, The Guardian, BBC News Website and on the cover of books and magazines in the United states and Canada.

eleanorleonnebennett.zenfolio.com

erinkobie.com

ERIN KOBIE NY USA

Erin Kobie is a fine artist and illustrator living in Western New York. She does not believe that people go to either a Very Good or Very Bad place when they die. She is reasonably afraid of the uncertainty of death, and tries to remind herself that as far as she knows, this is the only life she gets and that she needs to take advantage of it. Erin thinks Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the underworld in Greek mythology, is misunderstood. He is generally grumpy and talks to himself, but in general, he is a sweet creature with good intentions who forgets that he shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t hold loud conversations with himself in the presence of others.

EVA BRUNN E R Berlin, Germany

“Eva Brunner’s photographs present us urban landscapes that radiate an intense humanity, beyond any aestheticism or mere reproduction. Men and women are always present, physically, in fleeting or defining attendance – appropriating the landscape. Eva practices a haunting and moving „poetry of deterioration“ that describes an intensive urban existence.

This poetic technique, paradoxically, avails itself of a cold and objective language, dissecting what bestows a rare and compelling intensity upon her declaration.”

(Jaume Fabrega - AICA) The photograph presented was taken at the Spreepark Berlin, a former entertainment park of the GDRcontrolled East Berlin, closed for the last decade. This picture is dedicated to the great German master Arno Fischer (1927-2011) whose student she has been since 2007.

Born in Lucerne (Switzerland), Eva studied Communications (Film & Photography) at the American College of Rome, Italy. In the early 80s, she began to write plays that were premiered in Rome. 1985 she became a Resident Writer at the Municipal Theater of Lucerne.

1987 winning a residency at the LCB, granted by the Cultural Senate, she moved to Berlin where she has lived ever since, working as an author (of prize-winning radio drama) and translator. Since 2005, she is dedicated to photography, studying with Arno Fischer (Berlin) and Anders Petersen (Copenhagen). Eva is a co-founder and a member of exp12, Gallery for contemporary photography in Berlin.

Since 2005, her work has been presented in several Solo Shows in Switzerland, Spain, Germany and France (Festival Voies Off, Arles 2011) and in numerous group exhibitions in the United States, in South America and throughout Europe.

Eva Brunner Berlin Germany mail@evabrunner.com evabrunner.com

garyabibbmemento2. blogspot.com g a r y a b i b b - a r t . blogspot.com

G A R Y A. BIBB CO USA

Gary A. Bibb was born in Wichita, Kansas and studied architecture at Kansas State University but discovered art to be more compelling. He received his BFA in Visual Art from Emporia State University (Kansas). Most of his artistic career has been lived in Colorado and Southern California. He currently resides in Denver, Colorado.

The artist has exhibited both nationally and internationally. Furthermore, his art is represented in private and corporate collections along with being archived in the following museums and institutions: Longview Museum of Fine Art - Longview, TX; Museum of Modern Art â&#x20AC;&#x201C; NY, NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art - LA, CA; The Fluxmuseum â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Ft. Worth, TX; Museu Brasileiro da Escultura - Sao Paulo, Brazil; Museum of Modern Art: UK - Machylleth, Wales; The International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction - Ft. Worth, TX; The Hoffberg Archive - University of California, Santa Barbara, CA; Ohio State University - Columbus, OH; The National Institute of Art - Buenos Aires, Argentina; Long Island University - Brookville, NY; The Black Mountain College Museum - Asheville, NC; The A. S. Popov Museum (Communication Art Collection) - St. Petersburg, Russia.

Gary A. Bibb conceived and co-curated the 2010 international art project - Fluxface in Space. Exhibitions of the project have been featured at Fluxfest Chicago - Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL and the Ft. Worth Community Art Center, Ft Worth, TX with additional exhibits being scheduled.

The Fluxface in Space project websites: fluxfaceinspace.blogspot.com and wix.com/fluxfaceinspace/exhibit The image exhibited at A Book About Death Seattle is related to the 500 original artworks submitted to the NYC exhibit in 2009.

GRACE GRAUPE PILLARD NJ USA

GREGORY MARTENS WI USA

Originally, this etching was titled The Mourners, and was inspired by the work of printmaker Rico LeBrun. It is a funerary scene where the onlookers pay their respects to a skeleton calmly reading a book in his coffin. The Catholic reliquary is referenced here because, for the Pilgrim, resurrection is first contingent on death, and then swallows it up.

As a survivor of devastating Bone Marrow Cancer, I faced death on my own death bed. I was overwhelmed by all the things I would miss if I died at age 46; the weddings of my children, grandchildren, and the joy of growing old with my wife. But, I was spared; somehow I have survived for six extra years and now live in remission.

My Oncologist never fails to warns me, “It will come back, you will relapse.” So, I live in defiance of death until it is again swallowed up in life. It is a great honor to be part of A Book About Death because each page is real and powerful and full of life.

Gregory Martens was born in Milwaukee Wisconsin, and earned his MFA in printmaking at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee where he now teaches printmaking. He maintains a busy exhibition schedule, and his prints and artists books are collected internationally. Martens works under the monogram Hip Joint Press, and resides with his wife and collaborator Sharon in Wauwatosa Wisconsin, they are blessed with three grown children and one granddaughter.

Wauwatosa WI, USA gregorymartens.com g m a r t e n s @ m i n d spring.com textandimageart.com

FRAN GALLO In My Dreams In my dreams, I help her up out of bed.

In my dreams, she stands on two steady feet and she walks.

She walks away from her bed, from her wheelchair, from the nursing home, out into the world.

She sheds catheter and all medications.

She casts away MS, the disease that has left her paralyzed and has all but stripped her of her dignity.

She walks in my dreams.

When I am not dreaming, I feed her, hold a glass of water to her lips, brush her teeth.

I cut her nails, dress the bed sores on her heels.

I comb her hair.

I tell her how much I love her.

I listen patiently to the same conversations we have gone over again and again.

Jeanie: How’s Rick? Is he still goodlookin’ as ever?

Me: He’s fine. He’s doing fine.

Jeanie: Well, is he?

Me: Yeah, he’s fine.

Jeanie: No! Is he still good-lookin?

Me: Yeah, he sure is!

Jeanie: Well, Franny, you got yourself a good man. Now don’t go doing anything to screw things up!

Where does she come up with this? She can still crack me up!

I change the subject to Ava and Brynlee,

her precious granddaughters, the little girls Jeanie always wanted.

We talk about them for who knows how long.

The conversation is all over the place.

We go from Ava to the boys to her ex to mom and dad to bingo to the details of the nurses’ lives to the subjects of God and spirit.

Jeanie lives in the world of spirits. She tells me Mom and Dad and my brother John, who died at birth, “visit her” regularly and they chat. She tells me that our brother John is an adult now and is very handsome and kind. Jeanie knows everything before you have had a chance to tell her. She often slips into Italian as we talk. In fact, she prefers to speak in Italian.

A nurse’s aid enters the room.

Jeanie says to me: Did you meet “my girl”?

At first I think she is referring to one of her granddaughters. But then I realize she means the woman who has just walked into the room. I am embarrassed by her words which seem to indicate an “ownership” of the people who tend to her physical needs, but I realize her intention is not to appear superior. It is simply her manner of expression. Perhaps this is her way of belonging to this nursing home.

Jeanie as a little girl, Gary, Indiana

frangallo.wordpress. com/2011/05/08/in-mydreams

GREG DRAKE IL USA

I am a History major, Biblical scholar, and writer. My study of history and the Bible have influenced and inspired me to be an artist. more later…….

heathermatthew.com.au bboxproductions.blogspot.com hamatthew@bigpond.com

HEATHER MATTHEW A USTRALIA

Heather Matthew is an Australian artist and poet who lives in the caldera region of northern New South Wales.

She works primarily in paper incorporating found ephemera and papers in her collages, prints and handmade paper.

These paper works are used as the basis for constructed artist books which have been exhibited in Australia, USA and Great Britain. Her artwork is layered and often stitched with images and text sourced from old books, stamp collections and the detritus of everyday life.

Heather participated in the first ABAD in New York as well as in ABAD Sao Paulo. The image ‘Those who’ve been before’ is a digital manipulation of a photographic print screenprinted onto wallpaper and overlaid with text. It is about connection to the past, to our ancestors, all those who have been before.

HERB SUNDVALL SEATTLE

Is a Seattle poet who has participated in several ABAD exhibits from Sao Paulo, Brazil to Seattle, Washington. Submitting poems on death and dying has enabled him to memorialize friends and family who have passed on and to cope with grieving.

He has found comfort in becoming part of the community of artists and writers who share their vision in A Book About Death.

Herb also participated in a poets and writers reading that took place at the Quetzalcoatl Gallery during the Seattle ABAD exhibit. Fran Gallo and Mitsu Sundvall read from memoirs on the loss of a sister and a father. Rick Clark, Doug Cole, and Herb read from a series of their poems.

herbsun@earthlink.net

Dead Talk Our dead loved ones speak to us.

We murmur answers softly As lovers in bed waking from dreams.

They eavesdrop on our daily rounds.

We seek advice without hope of answer, feeling a need to ask.

Comforting responses, like warm breezes, move over us: A father, a sister, a lost pet nuzzling our ear.

So we live without our dead ones, Suffer loss but hold some part in trust.

I have been contributing poems and illustrations to A Book About Death for two years now. When Kathleen McHugh asked me to co-curate the Seattle ABAD exhibit, I was eager to help. ABAD is for me about facing and dealing with the fact of death in our lives. Some people donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t want to talk about it, plan for it, accept it for themselves or loved ones. For me, writing poetry about death and dying is my way of dealing with deathâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s presence as an everyday possibility. Two poems that best express how I do this are included here. I read these at our ABAD Reading given one afternoon during the exhibit. I was joined by my wife, Mitsu Sundvall, my former yoga teacher Fran Gallo, and fellow poets Rick Clark and Doug Cole. Portions from their readings are included here also.

A Hole in the Life A hole in the life of the living left when a loved one leaves sometimes takes days, months, forever to fill in as we continue to think about talk to write letters in our heads look for e-mail find books to send remember things to say mark the passing on calendars ignoring all advice to move along with the living because no one enters our lives and leaves at death.

We are joined together forever.

carrena1291@hotmail .com

HORACIO CARRENA Argentina

My work is based on the development of plasticvisual signografĂ­a by the native peoples of our country, especially in the area of Patagonia and the North. More than 15 years, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m looking and looking at these signs, extracting those most interested me from the standpoint of visual and expressive. So I made several series of paintings and drawings where there is a new landscape emerged as a result of the free combination of these languages. The idea is to continue developing new works demonstrating the expressive richness of these symbols, though old, have much potential to develop and experiment. While the works are abstract, refer to a natural environment that was very important to Aboriginal people as would be for the man today. Also, these images are combined with different shapes, textures and colors taken from the various elements of nature, giving them virtual rhythms and movements to each work.

jcgart.com jcg.art@gmail.com

JADRANKA CARLUCCIO GARBIC ITALY

Croatian artist, Medical Doctor by profession and assiduous traveler, Jadranka has received a huge cultural heritage enriching her artistic soul emerged as from a childhood.

One impression, one emotion or a memory of a special moments, inspire me to paint. Anytime and anywhere.

No matter what techniques or by what means. Accordingly with a situation and a site can be the pencil on a paper, oil on canvas or â&#x20AC;&#x153;fine art digital paintingâ&#x20AC;?.

What matters is to capture and express with shapes and colors emotions nestled in my globetrotter soul.

My need is to communicate my feelings and emotions to the audience.

Could be simply my deep love for the beautiful world in existence, regret when destroyed by carelessness, or research of our origins, spirituality and meaning of life .

JAMES E. HATHAWAY IL USA

He studied a The School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Illinois, USA (1959-60).

After an assessment of whether making a living at art seemed reasonable, he studied Engineering at Purdue University, worked for Ford Motor Company for thirty-five years and retired in 2002.

As Art has always been his passion, he returned to Art, drawing, painting, and photography and founded “Hathaway Studios”..

His first piece for the Seattle “A Book About Death Show” was a card taken from a 20” X 30” pastel drawing called “Cup of The Carpenter”. This represents the wine cup used by Jesus at “The Last Supper”.

It depicts the modest cup that a carpenter may have used at the time in contrast to the elaborate representations used in churches called a “Chalice” for serving “Communion”. Yes, it is a book about death.

His second piece for the show was taken from a 20” X 30” photograph of a Drake Mallard Duck swimming in the shadows of a marsh pond, perhaps looking for a lost mate. … and yes, it is a book about death.

James E. Hathaway, Hathaway Studios

Jamie Newton concretewheels.com jnewton@concretewheels.com

JAM I E N E W T O N OR USA

I picked this image for ABAD Seattle primarily because it leaves itself open to several metaphorical readings when used in this context. The obvious ones of trying to hold onto something, of making a stand, of laying claim to a specific territory but also the (maybe) less obvious semblance of comfort or class, through color and material, that tries to mask what is actually still a pretty uncomfortable reality (in this case a straight-backed, no-arm chair). There is also the directness of the empty accommodation, like a roadside memorial or reference to a person no longer in this place. And, beyond any of that, the photo was taken on a street in Paris just a few blocks from where Matthew Rose lives and works and developed the idea for this latest round of ABAD exchange.

Bussanich Art Colorado Springs, CO USA jana.l.bussanich@gmail.com facebook.com/janalbussanichartstudio

JANA I BUSSANICH C O U SA

Artist jana l bussanich [editing note: intentional lowercase in jana l bussanich] works primarily in watercolor and charcoal figure. She began painting with watercolor in 2008 and studying life drawing and the human figure in 2010. These have become an essential part of Jana’s self-discovery as an artist, and have taught her what it means to express meaningfully upon paper in any subject or medium.

Jana believes that being an artist is best learned through biography, as well as in community with other artists. She values the Apprentice / Master model of education, and considers herself as both; always the Apprentice, yet also the Master of that which she currently possesses and in learning to work at the edge of her ability.

Continually seeking new information about her work and what she needs for ongoing personal growth and development, Jana esteems the colleagues and mentors who speak into her creative process. She is encouraged and inspired by those such as nationally known artist and painter Chris Alvarez of Colorado Springs; colleague Karen Burnett Hamer, Artistic Director and Playwright, for whom Jana produces live theatre in Colorado Springs; and the writings of American painter, Robert Henri through his book, The Art Spirit.

Jana makes her home in Colorado Springs, CO. with her husband. They have 4 children and 2 grandchildren.

With gratitude, she says of her husband James, “he makes me - being an artist - possible”.

Jana is glad for the opportunity to share her work and take up the conversation with a wider community about the question of life and death, and everything in between.

“Art is, after all, only a trace – like a footprint which shows that one has walked bravely and in great happiness.”

Robert Henri

JANE HSIAOCHING MA USA

Jane Wang is a composer/multi-instrumental and a member of the Mobius Artists Group (www. mobius.org).

Her non-music related work includes installation art, fluxus, performance art, phone photography, videotaping with her ultra-flip cameras and curating group shows. She is proud to have been part of the original A Book About Death in NYC curated by Matthew Rose (NYC) and is grateful for the opportunity to be one of the artists in the ABAD Seattle show.

Not being talented in the area of drawing or painting, she decided to knit a pillow for the show using fair isle technique - the final resting place - inspired by Sonja Benskin Mesher’s “The Empty Chair” (http://www.sonja-benskinmesher.com/) which Ms. Mesher submitted for the original ABAD exhibition.

Mobius Artists Group: www.mobius.org Compositions: http://www.myspace.com/janewangcomposer International calls for work in Ongoing blog form inspired in part by ABAD: Signs of Our Times: http://mobius-signsofourtimes.blogspot.com/ The Prostitution of Art: http://theprostitutionofart.blogspot.com/

facebook.com/JRGPhotographyJax

JENNIFER GRAY FL, USA

Jennifer Grey is a native of Jacksonville, FL, and has a B.A. in Photography from The University of North Florida. She spent several years freelancing as a writer and photographer for The Florida Times-Union before moving on to a career as a not-so-mild-mannered bookseller.

After several years away from her camera, she returned to the artistic fold with exhibitions at Florida State College of Jacksonville, the Museum of Contemporary Art Jacksonville, and various other venues on the First Coast. Photography is how Jennifer justifies her tendency to be easily distracted by shiny objects.

Jenniferâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s collage work is a natural offshoot of her general fascination with images, and gets done the old fashioned way: with scissors, glue, and a lot of cursing when her fingers stick to the paper. She particularly enjoys subverting images and copy from advertisements to make statements about life, death, and the human condition. GATEKEEPER was made immediately after September 11, 2001.

jeremywaltman.com

JEREMY WALTMAN PA USA

Jeremy is an American artist. His work includes drawing, painting, sculpture, film concept art, graphic novel, and new media. He received his B.F.A. at Penn State University and his M.F.A. at Florida State University. He has taught at Florida State University, Ursinus, and La Salle University. His work has been shown internationally.

Drawings, drawn paintings, or new media of singular figures in open landscapes.

He is director on an in postproduction independent feature film, Locomotive.

JO OLIVE A USTRALIA

As a printmaker and a maker of books, the object as a vessel for memory is a theme that underpins a majority of my work.

By employing the processes of ghost-printing and drypoint, layering and monoprint, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m able to speak of passing, the fragility of life, shadow and echo. By using heirloom linens and lace, I am able to honour the family members and makers who have passed.

In this work, the textures, the craft and the domesticity of such pieces are celebrated and the everyday hand-crafts of female family members are held up as relics, as potent reminders of time spent, of the intentions, thoughts and love that is a part of each thread, every detail formed and every stitch completed.

These words accompany my image for A Book About Death â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Seattle.

A box of family heirlooms hitched a ride with us.

A family tree, heavy with hand-made fruits.

Linen, embroidery, crochet, stitchings, knots, mendings and doilies.

Lots of doilies.

Amongst our new possessions there were tiny treasures that were not objects but people.

At least they were people to me.

Not a teacup but a great-grandmother.

Not a penny but a grandfather.

Not a doily but a mother.

Vessels for memory.

JACK CYMBER ISRAEL

Jack Cymber Contemporary Visual Artist Israel Multi-disciplinary Contemporary Visual Artist, his mixed media works include: Paintings, Photography, Digital work, Installations and Flux. Cymber has exhibited worldwide in Solo and Group exhibitions in Paris, Barcelona, Florence, London, Sofia, Tel Aviv, Shanghai, New York, Miami, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Seattle, Boston, Phoenix and Caracas. Cymber has participated in the ABAD project from its origins at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery, NY in 2009 and a committed participant in its sister exhibitions.

The abstract images of Jack Cymber have been described as reaching beyond the parameters of visual expressionism to access something of the sublime. At the center of his artistic approach lies Cymber’s Universalist belief in “a reconciliation between humanity and the divine.” His art explores the borderlands between the earthly and celestial realms, unpacking layers of meaning embedded in these mystical landscapes, all of which point to the same inevitable conclusion, that “everything is part of one whole world, and everything is connected.”

Cymber chooses his media with care, ensuring that his art reflects the contemporary era of digital technology. His works give a clean, sharp impression which is appealing in itself, but, also serves to bring the message of each piece to the foreground.

KAREN ALEKYAN Armenia

Was born in 1975 in Gyumri, Armenia. After graduating from the Yerevan Academy of Fine Arts in 2004 Karen has shown his artworks in Armenia and worldwide and has curated some exhibitions in Gyumri, Armenia. ,,Biennial progressiveâ&#x20AC;Ś,, VII International Biennial, Gyumri, Armenia (2010), ,,Feminism,, Aslamazyan sister`s hous- museum, Gyumri and Gallery,,One,, Yerevan, Armenia (2008).

His personal exhibitions have been exhibited in Montevideo ,,Solo exhibitions 2011-2012,, Laboratorio de Arte Postmoderno, Uruguay (2011), ,,The future which has passed,, ACCEA, Yerevan, Armenia (2007).

Among the group exhibitions he has exhibited within and outside Armenia.

,,Ambiguous Boundaries,, Gallery ArtPoint, KulturKontakt, Vienna, Austria (2012), ,,A Book About Death,, Quetzalcoatl Feathersnake Gallery. Seattle Washington, USA (2011) ,,Women in Art 3,, Museo historic de Santa Lucia, Uruguay (2011) ,,A Book About Death,, Firehouse Gallery, MoMA. New York. USA (2011), ,,CITY IN USE,, discussions, presentations, art exhibitions, actions, Yerevan, Armenia (2011), ,,Women in Art,, La Biennale de Montevideo, resto-pud Sorocabana Palace. Uruguay (2011), ,,Me among my friendsopen personalities,, Omsk, Russia (2011), ,,Body, New figurative art in Armenia,, Artists Union of Armenia, Yerevan (2010) ,,VI International Biennial,, Gyumri, Armenia (2008), ,,Armenian landscapes in Contemporary Art,, Zurich, Switzerland (2007).

karenalekyan@gmail.com karenalekyan.blogspot.com

Film by Karen Alekyan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBVBATkfRas&feature=player_embedded

F i l m b y K a r e n A l e kyan www.youtube.com karenalekyan@gmail.com karenalekyan.blogspot.com Film by Karen Alekyan http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBVBATkfRas&feature=player_embedded Film by Eddy Bergman http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EO6lxhS4_Eg&feature=player_embedded Film by SIN FRONTERAS http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=tBSCbTggBy4

KAREN ALEKYAN

Kathleen

McHugh Curator A Book About Death Seattle, Washington

He said that if he died in Viet Nam, he would die an atheist. In fact, the dog tags he wore in Viet Nam bore the imprint “Atheist”. A decision. A posture. Nihilism. God is death. His spirit died in Viet Nam, and his physical death decades later was determined to be connected to his service in Viet Nam. His loyal friends from his college and Veterans Against the War days kept him company while he died. One sat and read to him telling me, “he was different before the war”.

He was buried in an Orthodox church. After the liturgy, each person kissed his corpse. At the cemetery, everyone shoveled dirt on his coffin.

Later I learned that some were both unprepared for and overwhelmed by the physicality of the experience. They were accustomed to memorial services with or without ashes present, slide shows, music and reminiscent stories. They came to the church expecting to attend a memorial service.

That was my first inkling of how we have almost succeeded in removing the dead from our cultural experience of death. The dead aren’t even invited to their own party anymore! Maybe due to fear masked as indifference or avoidance? I don’t know. All I know is that there is a big wall between those who live with death and those who act as if it’s contagious, or that if they don’t talk about it, it won’t happen. When I saw the art call for A Book About Death at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in NYC I felt excited to think that artists – meaning makers – were going to share art inspired by death. What would artists say? Having been living alone in the world of indifference for awhile, I had my first sensation that artists weren’t going to let death reduce the world to indifference, to silence. Artists would have the last word. I thought, “this is why there is art and artists: to give a voice to the unspeakable. “

Artist pic credit: Paul Dahlquist

L a D a n s e M a c a b r e , “ M i s s G enocide”

I felt giddy imagining the postcards that would be sent to the gallery. Art would leave philosophy and psychology in the dust. I thought, “I need to see this art.” I sent an image on 500 postcards that reflected how I felt at the moment: in between, with no river shore banks in sight. Seeing that image in the context of all the other images has been a comfort. For me, A Book About Death is about artistic expression creating a canon of human experience. Both my husband and father died the same summer. Whenever I see Susan Shulman’s work, I think of my dad too. Her art says things I am unable to say. Much of the art in A Book About Death says things I am unable to say.

My daughter, Bridgid Roney, who majored in jazz vocals at Cornish, participated in A Book About Death with her composition Coffee Stains in Um Livro Sobre A Morte at MUBE in São Paulo, Brazil, curated by Angela Ferrara. Her lyrics about not wanting to clean the remaining stains from the

coffee her father spilled as they talked before he died again illuminated something about death for me: erasing the final traces of a person’s life before being ready to say goodbye is a very lonely experience. A Book About Death has also served as an uncanny road map in uncharted territory.

One night I changed into street clothes and drove to a hospital to keep my friend and her brother company when they took him off life support.

Suicide. Different images came to mind, including the “to do” list. Angela Ferrara’s video kept me company on the eerily quiet drive home.

A Book About Death has become a home for my thoughts. A cosmic file drawer. I am always putting a book, an old letter, a memory, a testimony, a question, an encounter with a survivor of genocide, a tragic accident, a natural disaster, a wicked experience hysterically full of such dark humor that I would never dare share it with anyone, with a piece of art from A Book About Death.

When Almendra Sandoval told me she was going to exhibit art about missing and murdered women in Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua, I told her about A Book About Death.

She looked at the ABAD websites and said, “Let’s do it!” I told my friend Herb Sundvall about the opportunity for an exhibition in Seattle at the Quetzalcoatl Gallery and he immediately offered to help. The music, readings and wall of art created a moment of transitory beauty. An expression. A decision. A posture. A commitment. It was all there at once: the anguish, nihilism, betrayal, decay, railing against empty symbols of false religion, humor, love, innocence, separation, spirituality, camaraderie in the abyss, and... the wild card. “Talk To God” was on the wall! Everyone was invited to pick up the phone. I was afraid to, but Herb did.

KATHLEEN McHUGH

KIT BOYCE CA USA

Kit Boyce is a painter, sculptor and printmaker, born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He received his MFA in Painting from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and his BFA in Art from Carnegie-Mellon University. He is currently residing in Southern California. He is unaffiliated.

k . m o r a v e c @yahoo.com c a r g o c o l l e c tive.com/kristinamoravec

KRISTINA C O V I N O M O R A V E C SEATTLE USA

I have always found birds to be uniquely divine in their balance of delicacy and strength.

That being said, the physicality of their deaths never ceases to stun me. Although often beautiful, I find their vacant forms devastating. Their remains evoke a sense of loss from something so present, echoing the fragility of all life.

In an attempt to find peace, I acknowledge and honor what is left behind.

Kristina Moravec is a Seattle-based photographer originally from Eugene, Oregon. She recently completed her Bachelor of Fine Art Photography through Seattle University. Her thesis, There Are Still Good Things, explores the search for peace stemming from an intense period of fear and grief and the struggle to carefully rebuild a stable world.

LAWRENCE C H A R L E S M I L L E R PA, USA

A sadness in the cellar of my soul The mother weeping beside a brother, And a sister twined with vines So white so cold Ah, the button, color of Pickled eggs A fight and out on the street To walk home in the coat, raven hair, blood red lips Rectangle houses.

World War Two at our Backs in its olive tee-shirt and thunder. So sad This and other marches past the markers and monuments.

And now the blonde she conquered has fallen. The waves Pulled him away this time and sand filled her mind.

Thieves steal machines in her machines, the identity in The shredder. Sunlight on the leaf of love. Bold child.

Backward child. Last child to leave. The words dry as we write them. And the canal freezes for skating legs and my cold, cold heart.

Lawrence Charles Miller Bellefonte, PA

LILIANA PARRA A R G ENTINA

MUJERES COLGADAS, ENCERRADAS Y AHOGADAS EN SU PROPIO SUSPIRO

LA TRATA

Liliana Parra was born in Buenos Aires She got a scholarship at the Hispanic Culture Institute (Madrid, 1965) and the Photographic Creation Scholarship at the National Art Fund in 1995.

Personal exhibitions 2009 Photographs, Photography month in Bariloche, Patagonia Museum.

2008 Random Materialism, National Art Fund.

2006 The credibility of the Fantastic, Art and Memory Museum, La Plata.

2005 Liliana Parra Photographs, National Art Museum.

2002 Photographs of plants, Praxis Gallery.

2000 Liliana Parra, One eye, different looks, Cecilia Caballero Gallery.

1997 Photographs, Argentine School of photography.

1992 Photographs, Andy Goldstein Foundation.

Participated in several collective exhibitions:

MUJERES Y NINOS DESAPARECEN PARA SER VICTIMAS DE MERCADO

LA TRATA Para nos o t r o s la desapa r i c i o n e s l a m u e r t e . lilianaparra.com.ar

Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Japan, Venezuela and Guatemala.

Publications Photography in Argentina, from 1840 to our days. Sara Facio. La Azotea Publishing House, 2009.

Present Argentine photography 2. Sara Facioâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s selection. La Azotea Publishing House, 1996.

Her works are in the Photographic Collection at National Art Museum, Art and Memory Museum in La Plata and private collections in Argentina and abroad.

LISA DAVIDSON NJ USA

Lisa Davidson received her BFA from the School of Visual Arts in NYC. While there, she studied with Mary Heilman. Lisa has exhibited her work in the U.S. and Europe. In 1995 the artist earned a Masters degree in Art Therapy. Her specialty is working with adults that have psychiatric illnesses. Lisa’s art work recently changed dramatically. “I began using stencils and mixed media. A series of Skulls evolved out of this pattern painting style. When you look at a skull, there is no black or white, old or young - the playing field has been leveled - all are equal.”

Neoimages.com

LORENZO BASILE ITALY

Lorenzo Basile nasce a Sarno in provincia di Salerno dove attualmente vive e lavora. E’ un artista poliedrico e introspettivo, un pittore dell’anima. Fin dalla più tenera età è affascinato dall’arte del disegno e della pittura in cui cimenta il suo estro creativo. Una passione che lo spinge a studiare la storia dell’arte e le varie tecniche pittoriche. Comincia a dipingere in giovanissima età seguendo i canoni dell’arte figurativa. Dopo un lungo periodo di pratica pittorica in cui apprende i rudimenti del “ mestiere del pittore”, inizia un percorso di ricerca e sperimentazione ispirandosi alle più moderne “tendenze artistiche” ed infatti le sue opere risentono dell’influsso dell’espressionismo, dell’astrattismo e dell’informale.Nel corso dell’ultimo ventennio partecipa a centinaia di mostre collettive, a concorsi ed espone in personali in Italia e all’estero ( USA, FRANCIA, BRASILE, URUGUAY, INGHILTERRA, PORTOGALLO), raccogliendo consensi di pubblico e critica e ricevendo premi e attestazioni di merito. Le sue opere pubblicate in cataloghi e riviste sono presenti in collezioni pubbliche e private in Italia e all’estero.Si diletta a scrivere poesie da appassionato della parola e della sua forza evocativa. Predilige dipingere ad olio ma mi cimenta anche con l’acrilico e le tecniche miste.

E’ stato citato ed hanno pubblicato articoli e recensioni sul suo lavoro i seguenti giornali e riviste: Cronache del Mezzogiorno, Il Mattino, Albatros, Euroarte, Boè, Eventi, Roma, La Città, Metropolis, Murales, Gazzetta di Aversa, L’Osservatore dell’Agro, Il Salernitano, Salernonotizie, Eco di Salerno, Napoli.Repubblica.it, Insieme, Colonnarotta.it, Politicadomani, Positanonew. it, Ephemerides, “Ok Arte” di Milano, “Folha de SÃO PAULO,” Guia Da Folha”, DentroSalerno.it., “Androposin the world”, La Voce della carità, Napoli.com, Segni dei Tempi, Le Radici del Futuro; CasertaNews.it .

LuAnn T. PALAZO The two biggest things on mind at the time of the ABAD Seattle call were the ten year anniversary of 9/11 and the passing of Steven Jobs.

After all this time, 9/11 is still very much an open wound for many. I found it surreal to acknowledge that ten years had indeed passed. My husband was there, and I hope never again to live through a day like that–not knowing where he was or if I would even see him again. It was 8 hours of the deepest, most visceral fear, and by sheer force of will I kept it together in front of my young children while inside I was screaming non-stop.

This piece is meant to illustrate the cold sweep of death that still reaches across the past ten years.

The second piece is my tribute to Steve Jobs, to his genius and his artistry. It is his entry into the hallowed ABAD halls from me, with love. Steve Jobs thought of himself as an artist and his goal was never to beat the competition, or to make a lot of money; it was to do the greatest thing possible, or even a little greater. I adored him for that.

I had one of the very first MacIntosh computers in 1984 and it literally changed the course of my life. He made it possible for me to conduct a successful career in art and design from my home studio while simultaneously raising my children. It is strange to consider that my family and I owe quite a bit to someone I’d never met, and I actually felt a very personal sadness on the occasion of his passing.

LAUNN T PALAZO NY USA

lynnskordal.paspartout.com

LYNN SKORDAL WA USA

Lynn Skordal (aka paperworker) I was born last century in a small village on the west coast of Iceland (or maybe it was the south of France, I forget…), but was soon abducted by an itinerant band of corporate lawyers who raised me on principles of res judicata. Not knowing any better, I practiced law for many years, foreclosing on a daycare center the week before Christmas, staring down the Posse Comitatus over bogus bank accounts, and drafting the constitutional governing document for a small Polynesian nation (one of those is actually not true). Four or five years ago I left the law and began making art. These days, I make collages and other paper and book arts projects on an island in the middle of a lake in the middle of a city in the beautiful Pacific Northwest. Usually, I have no idea what I’m doing.

It was a pleasure to participate in “A Book About Death” for Seattle. My piece observes the agony, the ritual and the ecstasy of Death…the thing we fear the most and know the least.

My now-and-then personal collage blog:

r e g u l a r p a p e r . b l o g s p ot.com

DAME MAILARTA CANADA

MFA â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;95 State University of New York; Purchase, New York BFA â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;92, Sir Wilfred Grenfell College; School of Fine Arts, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, Newfoundland.

Somewhere in the foggy mists of Newfoundland, I came to discover there was a very colorful world beyond its shores. In the land of postal routes and mail carriers I would learn to make contact with this greater world. Making art that travelled through the mail seemed a natural extension of the artist within who craved to find others of like mind.

Mailarta Studio J ArtSpace Victoria, BC, CANADA

mailarta.blogspot.com mailarta@gmail.com

MARA THOM P S O N C A , U SA

MARGARET BALDERAMA

SEATTLE USA

Margaret Balderama is a social worker in Seattle, WA. Who values the transformative power of art in individuals and communities. She has secured funding and organized art projects in Seattle Public Schools.

For many years she volunteered with the Creative Expressions Project at the Washington State Reformatory, working on a variety of individual and group projects with the incarcerated men.

MATTHEW ROSE FRANCE

PHOTO BY ARI ROSSNER PARIS: Ari Rossner - Photography Tel. +33 1 4671 1212 â&#x20AC;˘ Mob. +33 6 800 32 781 .arirossner.com arirossner.blogspot.com

melanieharrington.com. melloharrington@gmail.com

MELANIE HARRINGTON

CA USA

Der, God of Time: The God of Time is a brutal and unthinking ape, the most powerful of all the Gods. He carries a large knife, with which he cuts all away. He hides himself in the blackness of night but carries a candle for use when he wishes to be seen: in those somber, frail, and aging moments, Der is revealed in his act of stealing away precious time.

Der eventually will take everything, and some are taken too early, some too late, some stolen while they are fat with promise and others when they have gone flat and dry. It has been said that Derâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s power is beautiful for the way it imbues mortal life with poignancy and fullness, but others say that the random, callous, utterly impersonal aspect of it is obviously the design of an idiot.

As a worshipper of science and reason, I was the last person expecting a revelation from the God of Time.

But such is the psychological frailty of human animals, this primal craving for someone to plead with and to blame for the forces that push us around. We cling to beliefs as if they were life itself. My current work in Mythological Subjectivism explores these irrational longings.

MICHAEL HUBBARD WA USA

My painting for this exhibition features a blurry double image of an unmade bed. The bed is an object rich with meaning. It is a place of birth and death, a lived-in place and a place of love. Here the bed is empty, but signs of its occupant are left behind, and the question of where that occupant has gone is left unanswered. This is not necessarily a painting of a literal death, but it represents an assortment of small deaths: the passage from waking to dreaming and back, the end of a love affair, and the death implicit in human absence.

Michaelhubbarda r t . c o m

MICHAEL HARFORD IN USA

Michael Harford was born and raised in San Francisco, where he studied drawing and photography at the Academy of Art. As a collage artist, his work addresses his interests in philosophical and political issues through poetic use of post modern images and concepts. His work has been included in national and international exhibits. theworldisatown.blogspot.com coffeemessiah.blogspot.com

MICHELE PRINCIPATO TROSSO ITALY

Si segnala all’attenzione della critica nazionale e internazionale per peculiarita delle sue opere, che colpiscono per il forte impatto espressivo.

Principato e un’artista che, collocandosi sempre e comunque alle “frontiere” di qualcosa di certo gia nel titolo, sfugge alla comprensione e non lascia mai che le parole cessino di significare qualcosa di loro. Ha esposto in tutto il globo terrestre ecco alcuni luoghi dove ha esposto Agrigento, Catania, Desio, Enna, Firenze, Foggia, Messina, Milano, Napoli, Palermo, Perugia, Ragusa, Roma, Torino, Trieste, Berlino, Londra, Madrid, Miami, Montevideo, Monaco, New York, Oporto, Valencia, Vigo, Taichung City.

P r i n c i p a t o T r o s s o M i c hele Nazionalita italiana D a t a d i n a s c i t a 0 2 a p r ile 1974 p r i n c i p a t o m i c h e l e @ t i scali.it, m i c h e l e p r i n c i p a t o . s y n thasite.com

MIRIAM BRUMER

MITSU SUNDVALL SEATTLE USA

Beth 1937–2011

by Mitsu Akiyama Sundvall

Mitsi. I have never thought of you as Japanese. Only as the best friend I have ever known, since the third grade when your mom and dad asked the LeConte school principal to find you a friend. It was just after the war and they thought you would be lonely without a friend.

“I’ll do it,” I said. “I’ll be Mitsi’s friend.”

So ever since we were about ten we were best friends. A funny thing—at first my mother had told me that I shouldn’t ask you over while my father was home. I couldn’t figure out why, but we had to introduce you slowly.

We got to be about 13 years old and we were going to spend the summer together. So my mom thought that it would be a good idea for your parents to meet her and my dad because we were going to take you to our Turlock apricot ranch in the valley.

“Yes,” your mom said. “I will come over to your house and cook a Chinese dinner.”

So I helped Mom get ready. I tidied up and set the table for four (you and I, Mitsi, would eat upstairs in the sun porch). My dad had just got off work at the naval shipyard and was hovering around.

“Oh, so we’re having company for dinner?” he asked.

“Yes. Mitsi’s mother and father are coming over for dinner.”

My father’s face turned dark, just like it did when he was a World War II block captain and there was an air raid drill to prepare for a Japanese invasion.

“I am not sitting down to dinner with any

Japs,” he declared. [World War II had ended five years earlier, but Japs were apparently still around in Berkeley.]

Ding dong. I ran to the front door before my father could. There was your mother and father, arms full of bags of food for dinner. Well, you and I took our dinners upstairs to eat while the grown-ups ate in the dining room. I was so nervous and sick to my stomach about how my father was going to spoil the whole thing and ruin our friendship.

Then after you went home that night, my father came to me and said: I have never met such fine people in my life.

Last week, more than sixty years after that home-cooked Chinese dinner, my friend Beth Hall Johnson heard someone at the front door. She could not run to answer it because she was lying in bed sick with rectal cancer and groggy with morphine.

Ding dong. Death had come to the door, arms overflowing with bags of memories—two gangly mismatched girls going round and round the Oakland roller rink to the tune of the Tennessee Waltz, movies at the United Artists theatre on Shattuck with its sweeping staircase to the balcony, the hot summers at the Turlock apricot ranch swimming in the irrigation canals, waving at the boys driving by in their tractors.

I had made a special trip to California to see her and she wordlessly held my hand tightly. Just five days after I left, death walked in the front door and took her away.

I have never met a finer friend than Beth in my life.

Mitsu Sundvall is a writer from Berkeley, New York City, and Seattle who is writing a memoir of three generations of her family of Japanese ancestry.

NIKKI SOPPELSA OH USA

Nikki Soppelsa (Berea, OH USA) is a collage and mail artist. A frequent participant/ contributor to ABAD (A Book About Death) exhibits worldwide draws upon her love of collecting late 1800s cabinet cards/carte de viste and her own photographs of the sky and of cemeteries.

These components come together to give a face to a name, bring the past into the present with ‘new life’. Her ABAD collages are usually of the ‘little lambs’, the children, along with a story and a sprinkling of darkly humor. Papers old, new and found, cut/paste, beeswax are the materials used in her favored 4”x6” format.

“This piece ‘Dealt ... Played’ was so inspired by the headstone. I could play with this Card all day! However, in this instance, we are all dealt a hand in this life and to a certain degree, have a hand in how it’s played out until that last card is dealt. My favorite crow is ever present as a sign of change, transition, and as always, at least one small dimensional ‘guide’ Book About Death is present.”

She is a frequent participant and contributor to Art House Co-op projects, has participated in FluxFace in Space, The Altered Art postcard exhibit in Stockholm and has recently gifted a collage to The Ontological Museum for An Exhibition from the International Museum of Collage, Assemblage and Construction for the Collage Centennial 1912-2012.

She is also a member and award winner in The National Collage Society. More of her work can be seen at

NikkiSoppelsa.blogspot.com

NOEMI SILVERA URUGUAY

Noemi Silvera is an uruguayan selftaught artist and curator born in September, 1968 in MontevideoCurrent residence: Uruguay e-mail: info.smallart@ gmail.com Universitary studies of: Philosophy 19871990 (Olden, Middle age and rennaisance) in the Professors Institute, Faculty of Psichologhy 1995-98 and Anthropology in 1998 Private school of Arts in Montevideo, 1993-1996 School of theatral action Alambique, 1993-1997 Residence in Portugal 1999-2001 Residence in Alicante, Spain 2004-2006 Silvera is founder in a new concept of museums how public and popular â&#x20AC;&#x153;spacesâ&#x20AC;? in contemporary art.

As an artist she explore neo expressionisms and postmodern tendences. Use oil, collage and mixed medias in painting; in sculpture is working in raku and soft sculpture. Her art is raw, influenced by action art and arte povera with ethnical esthetic.

And as a curator; she also is doing a big archivium with more than 1500 artworks from around the world and good quantity of mailarts, ATC, ATB, etc. During the lasts years this archivium was becoming so big, archivium web address is: archiviumelyseo.blogspot.com

PATRICIA K R A N E N B E R G NY USA

Patricia earned an undergraduate degree in Art and History Education with an emphasis in Photography from the University of New Mexico. She achieved a Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s degree in Photography, Graphic Communications and History from SUNY at Stony Brook.

She has experience with traditional black & white and color photography including Cibachrome printing. She also has extensive knowledge and experience with alternative photographic processes of Cyanotype, Vandyke Brown printing, Gum Bromide printing and SX-70 Manipulated Polaroid.

In her current techniques, Patricia combines DSLR photography and Adobe Photoshop to manipulate the images. Her ABAD submission combines photos of textures and images, which are further enhanced and manipulated with Photoshop. The images themselves have a personal significance; they represent the extinction of youth and how life morphs itself through of time. Of particular significance is how the manipulated image creates a false scenario, removing from the subject all recollection of their presence in the original scene. The photograph fills the gaps in memory that may exist in the minds of the subjects of the original imagery, or, it elicits a feeling of memory loss.

flickriver.com/photos/patriciakranenberg pck7887@gmail.com

Paula Franรงa Brazil

I am Paula Franรงa , a brazilian artist who lives at Sรฃo Paulo.

My paintings have a intense research about colors. Another part of my work is digital photographs and graphic design.

The work that participated of a Book About Death exhibition is digital graphic elaboration on details of two of my paintings.

Theses images appeared on canvas without any personal intention, as a psychic manifestation, when I saw them I just intesified the colors.

It seemed a good idea put them togheter for a exhibition named A Book about Death.

www.mpaulafranca.com

PAULA S H A U G H N E S S Y NJ USA

RANJAN ENGTI INDIA

DOLLAR DIPLOMACY – GOD of the Mighty AMERICANS !! “ ( Who says Dollar (soft power) is SOFT? Who says Diplomacy is just a right for international existence?

Dollar and US Diplomacy – MAKE A LETHAL MIX )

“Naked Truth for Covered Life - Save SUBANSIR, STOP BIG DAMS !!” ( The subansiri river..means the golden river. Civilizations have grown and ended in its lap, on its bank. The sparkle of the golden river, where once gold was present in its bed, has been stopped, dyked..its flow controlled forever...The golden river flows now with the permission of concrete gates-DAMS. The people on its bank waits and stares..thinking if it would regain its golden sparkle. The river, SUBANSIRI, a reality, has turned into a myth ! )

RENEE CRE A G E R O ’ B R I E N NY USA

Renee Creager O’Brien is an artist, photographer, and educator. Her photographic images address issues of transience, the sequence of time passing, impermanence.

She uses film, pinhole, and digital cameras, and focuses (or perhaps defocuses) within the genres of documentary, portrait and experimental photography. The image for A Book About Death Seattle was generated from a digital zone plate portrait series. Dr. O’Brien completed her Ph.D. in Art Education with a dissertation on photography and aesthetics, The Post-Romantic Vision of Contemporary Pinhole Photographers. She is Associate Professor of Photography at SUNY Adirondack in Queensbury, NY and a mentor for SUNY Empire State College, Center for Distance Learning in Saratoga Springs, NY. She lives in Hadley, NY with her husband, Tom O’Brien, a renowned sculptor and pastel painter.

obrienr@sunyacc.edu

RIA VANDEN EYNDE BELGIUM

Artist and Cancer Activist Ria Vanden Eynde has a Ph.D. in Mathematics, a Gestalt Therapy Training Certificate, a MA in Applied Ethics and attended SLAC Art School. Her body of work strives to externalize inner psychological processes and expresses the body as limited and finite vessel, a Buddhist idea. Her illness inspired the blog project painting2cancers. An underlying philosophical interest draws her to the artistic exploration of transcultural religious/philosophical subjects. Together with Susan Shulman and William Evertson, she created the Artist Collective Seeking Kali. This cooperation has led to a limited edition artist book of artistic interpretations of Kali, participation in The Billboard Project in several cities across the US, participation in shows in India; in Treviso, Italy, Montreal; in Berlin, Germany and in the US. She has participated in the initial project “A Book About Death,” and continues to make pieces for the subsequent shows, showing in more than 23 countries around the world. Her current project explores artistic expressions of the Buddhist principles of Emptiness and Impermanence. (about my abad Seattle card) This image was made for my 5th ancerversary. In the photo, where the tree branches are getting entangled and you can’t see which is which anymore, where the darkness is most intense, that’s where the brightest light is.

RICK CLARK SEATTLE USA

Rick Clark is an English instructor at Seattle Central Community College, a freelance writer and poet, and editor of CORRelations, Newsletter of COR Northwest Family Development Center. The documentary Beauty of the Fight, whose script he wrote, has been selected by 29 film festivals and won two prizes. Several of Rick’s poems can be found in Rose Alley Press’s Northwest poets anthology Many Trails to the Summit. Several poems are due to come out in several venues this year.

Rick is author of many death poems.

Folk’s Glove Higher and higher, bell by glorious bell, the folk’s glove trills its violets skyward.

Old bells fall that earlier rang, muted now by soil, sweet and dank.

Can’t keep up for long such heavenly song, grown heady with light and pulled by gravity’s might.

Heavy-headed slender tower slowly toppling over, you sing how the world, like a flower, will also have its hour.

Rick Clark

Fallen Leaves in a Time of War So beautiful where you lie dead and dying on the ground, decorating our landscape, our mounds, for the posterity of our eyes.

Museum of Angers

Angers flare like waxen figures on great Teutonic pedestals Blond and chocolate brown, or, red-faced and bellicose, gold, copper, silver, and bronze, fume in frames on broken walls. blood red and adolescent green, or belly-up-white with fear— Some hands grip choppers,

Post-Modern Appearance Reading in the coffee shop, I look up as I hear a stranger, standing in line for coffee, say, “It just drives me psychotic!” and for a moment I’m riveted by the man’s face, a skull stretched tight with plastic skin, the gleaming black marbles of his eyes rolling around in their sockets as they cast about in my direction, on his head a stiff new bright red ball cap, its bill askew, evidence he’s on the team in the land of the living.

I look quickly back down at my book. Letters wriggle like worms on the darkening page.

Rick Clark

how lovely you are in your profusion, your slow death-throes, as you turn brittle, then to mush under winter’s endless rain.

What excellent rations you’ll make for our worms and moles— those relentless armored bugs!

Oh fallen leaves, I feel this much love!

Rick Clark

others guns. Tongues extrude, ears flap and eyes flame—lashed by geothermic gusts of rage.

Strings of burning muscles knot into a seething bust.

Frustrations lay deranged and tagged on endless display.

Blood flows in glistening sheets like red wet paint across the floor; stones remain imbedded in every door; every window’s broken beyond repair.

The curator doesn’t dust; by now the bloody belt buckles rust.

In the Museum of Angers, time stands still; outside, the dead and browbeaten mill.

Rick Clark

RICHARD FOUGHT SEATTLE USA

Death is a very natural part of life.

For the ABAD Seattle project I wanted to contribute something that represented a deeper, more insidious death. Human compassion seems to be in short supply these days; it is my opinion that compassion is a basic human trait which is necessary for our long-term survival. Being a street photographer first and foremost, I am witness to both the prosperous and the downtrodden - walking the same sidewalks and breathing the same air - but worlds apart. The image of a homeless person sleeping in a breezeway is powerful; seeing that same breezeway gated off to prevent the use of those few precious square feet for shelter - for survival - is small, but staggering. Many people may not even notice or question why those bars are there. I wanted to demonstrate with this piece one of the many little deaths that go on around us day to day. The Death of Compassion.

R i c h a rd Fought Fine Art Photography p h o t o .knottedtwig.net p h o t o @knottedtwig.net

SARA C. RITCHEY SEATTLE USA

Seeking K a l i Artist Collective William Evertson (USA) Ria Vanden Eynde (Belgium) Susan Shulman (Canada)

â&#x20AC;&#x153;Seeking Kali is three artists: William Evertson (USA), Ria Vanden Eynde (Belgium) and Susan Shulman (Canada) who in 2010 explored connecting their individual creative processes through social media platforms to create bodies of work involving traditional and non-traditional art forms.

These social media platforms quickly became virtual studio

spaces that the three artists use to invite other artists to come into and collaborate. As hip and revolutionary as Warholâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Factory, their studio blogs attract artists from around the globe, housing such projects as Seeking Kali and The Medusa Gaze as well as generating and linking live art exhibits in dozens of cities around the world.

Seeking Kali was established from the friendship formed by the three artists

during the initial A Book About Death Exhibition. They have submitted to all subsequent exhibits of ABAD with collaborative work. They continue to focus on the use of social media tools such as Facebook, Skype and Google + to create a body of work that includes print editions, video, performance art, artist books and graphic novels.

seekingkali.com

TONIA S. AREHART SEATTLE USA

S H I R L E Y HATHAWAY IL USA

Shirley Hathaway was born in Warsaw, Indiana, USA and now lives in Schaumburg, Illinois, USA (twenty-five miles from Chicago, IL, USA). She has worked full-time for the same Law Firm in “The Financial District” of Chicago, Illinois.

She has worked there for thirty years and loves her job. She loves the arts and supports them as often as possible. She is a Fine Art oil painter, photo-journalist, assemblage artist, and sometimes does interior design. She studied art at Manchester College, North Manchester, Indiana (1973-75). She continued her education receiving a BA in Psychology at Purdue University (IUPUI), Ft. Wayne, Indiana , 1982. She received an MS Degree in Psychology from Dominican University, River Forest, Illinois, 1989.

Shirley’s card for the Seattle show is from a 20” X 30” photograph she did as a “Remembrance of the Destruction of The Twin Towers” in New York City on September 11, 2001. Her art is inspired by Andy Warhol and Ray Johnson, and other artists from “The Factory”, NYC. She loves painting in large scale and transforms her art into post cards for the purpose of “Mail Art” and exhibits.

Her degree in Psychology helps her develop art themes in her own work and helps in the understanding the work of other artists. She is married to James E. Hathaway; the other part of “Hathaway Studios”, Schaumburg, IL 60193 USA. Shirley Hathaway, Hathaway Studios

s m s t e wart.tumblr.com

SHELLY M S T E W A R T WA USA

When I set out with my camera that sunny day, I had no particular artistic intention in mind. It was simply a beautiful day and I wanted to go for a hike.

Along the way, I decided to explore the rural cemetery that lies on top of a nearby hill. The markers, dating from the 1800’s to present day, were a documentation of the lives of individuals who had, at one time, made this small town their home. The gravestones were varied. Some were primitive, a name or single word such as “Baby” hand chiseled into rough stone. Others were polished marble and engraved with formal fonts. All were worn from the elements and covered with encroaching, fluorescent lichen. I gathered images.

Many images.

Later, as I reviewed what I had collected, the series came together. The worn, lichen-covered markers stood less a monument to the individual and more a testament to our inescapable absorption back into nature.

“Resorption”, the image I submitted to the exhibition “A Book About Death Seattle”, is from this series.

CANADA

SIN FRONTERAS Performs Latin American traditional and nueva cancion music throughout Seattle and the Pacific Northwest. Immerse yourself in vibrant rhythms, soulful melodies, breathtaking harmonies and, weaving throughout, the uncommon poetry of Latin Americaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s common people. Songs of life, humanity, equality, justice, hope.

Every performance is unique. In the spirit of a Chilean penya, Sin Fronteras regularly collaborates with guest artists to create a multimedia experience for our listeners: music, color, poetry, spoken word, dance, art, cuisine... At the heart of each event is the sharing between musicians, artists, and audience. sinfronteraseattle.com

SONJA BE N S K I N M E S H E R Wales

Sonja Benskin Mesher Born in Bournemouth, England Lives and works in Wales.

I have worked full time as a visual artist since 1999, and have spent those years exploring ways to communicate thoughts and concerns with my paintings and drawings Its not all you see on the surface, it goes deeper than that.

The work goes back many years, what I have seen, experienced, touched and collected.

I am a painter who writes, a writer that paints, a drawer on life, and landscape. . .. Watch me make things.

The Chair You may know that the Chair project has been very well received, all major paintings are sold, and some now in Public Collections. ‘The Empty Chair’ is in the MOMA, New York, Collection’’ LA County Museum of Art Research Library, & & Fluxes Museum, Mount Vernon, Ohio others with private buyers. A film has been made about the project and can be viewed in the Culture Colony members space.

Am quite patient, hold my tongue, but can’t say multi disciplinary. Easily I live here, in Wales Easily The Chair.

I have an empty chair. So I draw it.

People have come to sit in it.

Grandson, friend, artist.

Who will be next?

culturecolony.com/home “Don’t be scared of the empty chair.

The black book of sketches was in exhibition ,’Internal Documents’ @ The Writers Place, Kansas City, this year.

Prints of the first painting are being shown in the art phenomena ‘ A Book about Death’ which is ongoing world wide.

I curated the Wale’s ABAD show 2010, where the actual chair was exhibited

Sit on it.

Don’t be scared of the empty chair.

Stand on it.

Don’t be scared of the empty chair.

sonja-benskin-mesher.co.uk/abookaboutdeath-wales/ extras/index.htm

abookaboutdeath.blogspot.com

Draw it”.

STEWA R T E D W A R D S UK

STEWART. F EDWARDS PHOTOGRAPHER. WALES Flintshire North Wales

s.f.edwards@glyndwr.ac.uk flickr.com/photos/stew-edwards/ Slate, beginning to end.

Places in Wales

Steve Dalachinsky

mysp a c e . c o m / s t e v e d a l a c h i n s k y / m u s i c

Is a legendary New York downtown poet. He is active in the free jazz scene. He was born in Brooklyn, New York. He has been writing poetry for many years and has worked with such musicians as William Parker, Susie Ibarra, Matthew Shipp, Roy Campbell, Daniel Carter, Sabir Mateen, Mat Maneri, Federico Ughi, Loren Mazzacane Connors, Rob Brown, Tim Barnes, and Jim O’Rourke.

He has appeared at most of the Vision Festivals, an Avant-Jazz festival involving many of these musicians. He also appears often at the Knitting Factory, a unique live music club in Tribeca. He currently lives in Manhattan with his wife, painter and poet Yuko Otomo. His most recent book is “The Final Nite & Other Poems:Complete Notes From A Charles Gayle Notebook 1987-2006” (Ugly Duckling Press, 2006), a compendium of poetry written while watching saxophonist Charles Gayle perform throughout New York City in that time period. Other publications include “Trial and Error in Paris” from Loudmouth Collective Press and “Quicksand” from Isis Press. His spoken word albums include Incomplete Directions, I thought it was the end of the world and then the end of the world happened again with Federico Ughi, Phenomena of Interference with Matthew Shipp, and Thin Air with Loren Connors Member Since: February 19, 2008 Members: Steve Dalachinsky Record Label: Knitting Factory, 577 Records,

STEVE D A L A C H I N S K Y NY USA

SUSAN SHULMAN CANADA

BORN IN MONTREAL, SUSAN SHULMAN SPENT MANY YEARS PAINTING AND DRAWING. SHE STUDIED AT THE MUSÉE DE BEAUX ARTS AND THE SAIDYE BRONFMAN AND IN 1996, SHE RECEIVED HER BFA WITH DISTINCTION FROM CONCORDIA UNIVERSITY. TO DATE, SHE HAS HAD EIGHT SOLO SHOWS AND EXHIBITED WORKS IN OVER 25 SHOWS INTERNATIONALLY. SHE HAS ALSO PUBLISHED “MINISCAPES” AND “IN OUR MEMORIES FOREVER” AS WELL AS THE SEEKING KALI ARTIST’S BOOK WHICH IS IN THE State Library of Victoria COLLECTION IN AUSTRALIA. I HAVE BEEN AN ACTIVE PARTICIPANT IN “A BOOK ABOUT DEATH” GLOBAL EXHIBITIONS. SINCE THE 2009 DEBUT, THE ABAD PROJECT HAS TAKEN ON A REMARKABLE LIFE. MANY OF MY ARTWORKS CONTINUE TO TOUR THE WORLD, APPEARING IN MUSEUMS AND GALLERIES ACROSS THE US, BRAZIL, BELGIUM, CROATIA, SARAJEVO, ITALY AND THE UNITED KINGDOM. WHEN I THINK ABOUT A BOOK ABOUT DEATH, I IMMEDIATELY VISUALIZE THE INVISIBLE MAGIC THAT THREADS ME TO SO MANY OUTSTANDING ARTISTS THAT I MET AT AND FROM THIS INITIAL EXHIBITION IN NEW YORK CITY, SEPTEMBER 2009. I WAS REBORN. AN UMBILICAL CORD GREW AND ATTACHED ITSELF FROM MY CORE TO MANY OTHER ARTISTS WHO I AM NOW COLLABORATING WITH GLOBALLY, SEAMLESSLY CREATING MAGICAL BONDS OF CREATIVITY AND SHARING. HTTP://BLIP.TV/CONCORDIA-UNIVERSITY-TELEVISION/ARTS-CULTURE-INTERVIEW-WITH-MIXED-MEDIA-ARTIST-SUSAN-SHULMAN5428708 MY PALETTE IS BRIGHT AND BOLD CREATING TENSION AND CONFLICT BETWEEN IMAGE AND FEELING. THEY CONTAIN PORTRAITS DEALING WITH RELATIONSHIPS, REBIRTHS AND METAMORPHOSIS. THESE NARRATIVES ARE A CONTINUOUS INTROSPECTIVE SEARCH FULL OF EXCITING AND REVEALING INSIGHTS WITH ELEMENTS OF MY PERSONAL HERITAGE REFLECTING THE PASSION OF MY SOUL. IN ALL MY VISUALS, I ATTEMPT TO MAINTAIN THE RICHNESS OF COLOR, STILL EMITTING A STRANGENESS OF IMAGES. MY PERSONAL MYTHS EVOLVED FROM THE IMAGINATION OF MY SUB CONSCIENCE. MY MAGIC SYMBOLS OF FISH ARE A CONTINUOUS LINK IN ALL MY WORKS. THE IMAGES I CREATE WITH AN INTIMATE VISUAL ALPHABET THAT HAS EMERGED THROUGH MY PASSION. MY STORIES CELEBRATED IN OIL. THE SUBJECT MATTER IN SOME PIECES CREATE AMBIGUITIES TO THE VIEWER, WEAVING CONFLICTING MAGICAL TALES THAT I HOPE WILL TOUCH THE INNER CORE OF A SOULFUL PERSON. MY WORKS REPRESENT INNER STRUGGLES, GROWTH, AND THE CONTINUING SEARCH FOR MY OWN CONVICTIONS THROUGH MY ART. I THINK THROUGH MY CREATIVITY.

FRONT COVER: FISH TREE, 2001, OIL ON CANVAS, 24” X 36”.

THIS IS THE FINAL PAINTING “IN OUR MEMORIES FOREVER” SERIES OF NINE PAINTINGS. THIS NUMBER IS SYMBOLIC OF COMPLETION AND ACHIEVEMENT. I HAVE GONE FULL CIRCLE, AND CAN GO NO FURTHER IN THESE WORKS. NINE REPRESENTS THE COMPLETE CYCLE OF GESTATION AND I HAVE GIVEN BIRTH TO MY GLORIOUS AND HISTORICALLY RICH FAMILY. I AM SATISFIED AND ELATED. I CHOSE TO DEPICT MY FAMILY TREE IN THE FORM OF TINY FISH SYMBOLIC OF SCALES ON MY GREAT FISH OF LIFE. SCALES PROTECTING THE INNER CORE OF MY LEGACY REPRESENTING MY DIRECT ANCESTRY LINE OF GENERATIONS. THE OVERSHADOWING INFLUENCE AS I WAS PAINTING THIS WORK WAS THE EVENTS OF SEPTEMBER 11, 2001. THESE TRAGEDIES AFFECTED MY CREATIVE FLOW AND IN ORDER TO CONTINUE I HAD TO INCORPORATE THAT IMPORTANT MOMENT IN TIME. AS I AM CONCERNED WITH THE PAST, I AM ALSO AWARE OF THE IMPACT

OF THE FUTURE OF MANY GENERATIONS. THIS EVENT FROZE MY CREATIVE OUTLOOK AND I WAS TORMENTED WHETHER TO INCLUDE THIS INCIDENT INTO MY PAINTING. I DECIDED IT HAD TO BE EMBEDDED IN MY WORK SINCE MEMORY PLAYS AN INTRINSIC ASPECT IN ALL MY VISUALS. IN THIS NARRATIVE THE TWIN TOWERS SHADOW MY MAJESTIC RUSSIAN FISH THAT IS NOW DECORATED IN ARMY FATIGUE CAMOUFLAGE COLOURS GUARDING THE HARBOURS OF NEW YORK AND MONTREAL. NEW YORK IS AN IMPORTANT PART OF MY HISTORY SINCE MY FATHER’S TWO SISTERS HAVE RAISED THEIR FAMILIES THERE. A PLACE I HAVE FREQUENTED MY WHOLE LIFE, NEW YORK CITY IS PART OF MY EMOTIONAL HERITAGE AND WHILE THIS TERROR WAS HAPPENING, BOTH MY AUNTS WERE HOSPITALIZED. AS I WAS PAINTING MY FAMILY TREE, I WAS LOSING ONE OF MY FISH AUNTS TO TIME. THE MUSICAL SCALES OF ALL MY EXPERIENCES IN NEW YORK CITY & A BOOK ABOUT DEATH RESONATE LOUDLY IN MY SOUL. IT IS NOT NOTHING. I MET KATHLEEN MCHUGH, THE CURATOR OF THE SEATTLE ABAD EXHIBITION AS A RESULT OF THE INITIAL SHOW IN NEW YORK CITY IN 2009. ONE OF MANY GIFTED ARTISTS I AM HONOURED TO KNOW.

VIRGINIA PAU L A C A P P A B I A N C A Buenos Aires, Argentina

COLECCIÓN PERMANENTE 2011 Mobius Org. An online discourse and multi-media exhibition: “The prostitution of Art” theprostitutionofart.blogspot. com/2011/09/causalidades-iivirginia- cappabianca-64.html 2012 Centro cultural Borges. centroculturalborges.blogspot. com Selección Blogs: causalidades-parcialidades. blogspot.com trazolimite.blogspot.com poliforme-prototipo.blogspot. com 2013 Selección blog: “Seeking Kali”.

Organizada por Ria Vanden Eynde, William Evertson, Susan Shulman seekingkali.blogspot.com

v i r g i n i a c a p p a b i a n ca@hotmail.com F a c e b o ok: Bina Capadia c a u s a l i d a d e s-parcialidades. blogspot.com t r a z o l i m ite.blogspot.com p o l i f o r m e - p r o t o t ipo.blogspot.com

ACTIVIDADES LABORALES ENSEÑANZA COMÚN 2009 Escuela Almafuerte, Castelar. Docente de Plástica Visual.

(01/03-30/12) Niños y adolescentes (EPB y Secundaria)

ANOU K R A W K S O N W-J KER S T E N

WILLIAM EVERTSON CT USA

William Evertson is an intermedia artist who lives and works in Connecticut, USA. William has contributed to all ABAD projects to date including the inaugural exhibit at the Emily Harvey Foundation Gallery in 2009. His art includes work in artist books, printmaking, installation, performance and video art. Much of Williamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s work focuses on myth and archetype and common threads found in different cultures. Often themes are translated from one media to another as aspects are examined.

His interest in collaboration and mail art led to his initial involvement with the A Book About Death project.

Since then William has formed the Seeking Kali Collective with artists Ria Vanden Eynde of Belgium and Susan Shulman of Canada. Together they have been exploring the concepts of long distance collaborative works using social media both as a tool and as source material William has a BFA, Ithaca College, Sculpture concentration (1975), MFA, University of Delaware, Sculpture and Video concentration (1978) and a MALS from Wesleyan University; the later with a concentration in video and computer arts.

williamevertson.net billevertson.blogspot.com

WILLIE MARLOWE NY USA

Willie Marlowe has shown paintings in solo and invitational exhibitions in the U.S. and abroad.

Her work is included in museum, university, corporate and private collections and has been supported by grants from Artists Space, NYC, the New York State Council on the Arts and Strategic Opportunity Stipend awards from the New York Foundation on the Arts and the Art Center of the Capital Region. She has been a visiting artist in Tula, Russia, Barbados, West Indies, Cortona, Italy, and in Wexford, Ireland, where she had a ten year retrospective exhibition at the Wexford Arts Center. Other notable solo shows have been at the National Association of Women Artists, Inc. in New York City, and at the Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte, NC, and most recently at Opalka Gallery, Sage College of Albany, HallSpace, Boston, Ma. and Gallery C, Raleigh, NC. She has had artistâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s residencies at the Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY, the Cill Rialaig Project, Ballinskelligs, Ireland, and The Emily Harvey Foundation in Venice, Italy.

She received an MFA from the University of Idaho, a BS from East Carolina University and studied for a summer at The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. She taught painting and drawing in the Department of Visual Arts, The Sage College of Albany, served as chair of the Department for a two year term, and taught in two of The Sage Collegesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; international studies programs, Sage at Oxford, Somerville College, Oxford University, and Celtic Connections in Scotland and Ireland. She is now Professor Emerita, The Sage Colleges.

www.williemarlowe.com

Xiomáro NY USA

Xiomáro is a visual artist and musician based in New York. Of Cuban and Puerto Rican descent, he is acutely aware of despotic regimes like that of Fidel Castro. Against a backdrop of human skulls, the digital collage, Un Libro Sobre La Muerte, juxtaposes the forgiveness offered by a benevolent monarch with the merciless brutality of some of history’s worst dictators.

The King of Kings willingly accepted a tortured death on the cross to save souls. In contrast, the self-appointed kings tortured and killed the bodies of those they ruled over. Paradoxically, the Messiah’s sacrificial death is sufficient to forgive the sins of the dictators. But, on earth, these murderers will not be humbled, they will not repent, they will not accept forgiveness. So they mock the Savior just as his Roman tormenters did. Xiomáro’s image appears amongst the dictators because the Bible - a book about death as much as it is about life - warns that we will all stand before the judgment seat. And on that day, every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess to God.

www.xiomaro.com

TANGLETOWN STRING BAND

MATRIA O’HORA AND LOYCE ONG’UDI

Mwanzo Proud Farmers Mission Statement: To expand and diversify Kenyan cash and food crop farming as environmentally and economically sustainable business in rural communities.

Mwanzo Proud Farmers (MPF) is a US based non-profit organization established in January 2011. MPF is dedicated to creating a network of economically sustainable Mwanzo Proud Farmers Cooperatives (MPFC) in the Nyanza and Western Provinces of Kenya whose economies are impacted

by HIV/AIDS. MPF will provide organizational support and social business investment capital through grants and loans.

Loyce Ong’udi, Founder and Director of Mwanzo Proud Farmers, works to create sustainable rural development co-operatives in her home village in Nyanza Province and other neighboring rural villages in Kenya. Loyce Mbewa Ong’udi is a US citizen and Nyanza Province native. She uses her international business experiences in the development of partnerships with international social business investors and agricultural communities. Loyce’s vision is to combat poverty through the development of sustainable co-operative businesses informed by community-based solutions and the ingenuity and strengths of local peoples.

Contact Information Loyce Ong’udi, Found e r and Executive Direc t o r loyceongudi@comca s t . n e t Line Nya-Ngatchou, Development Directo r linekewe@hotmail.c o m http://awish.net 1813 19th Avenue # 4 1 0 Seattle, WA 98122 206-799-1571

ThE E x h i b i t i o n , bringstogether 144 Artists, SEATTLE and InteRRnatiOnal Artists...

A glObal COLLECTION QUETZALCOATLGALLERY.COM