you are loved...

Sometimes we all need to be reminded.

Shanna Murray's lovely wall decals provide a sweet way to remember. Alone or adorned with pictures or mementos, these decals can be placed on a window, a wall, or any place that will help brighten your day.

It's funny, I had just been thinking about the symbolism of knots, thanks to Art of Mourning's Symbolism Sundays (one of the highlights of my week):

Let’s take a look at the knot itself. The symbol itself is woven in on itself, enough to consider that two individuals are tying together to establish an interwoven union where two become one in the symbol. Next, there is the understanding of the knot becoming tighter as the two ends become further apart. Once again, distance only makes two people closer through its very nature. The knot also loops around on itself and travels in an eternal twist, for the love between the couple is forever undying. Put all these together and you have a rather special and beautiful symbol, one that encompasses much of the basis of what sentimental jewels are created for.

when vintage attacks!

I'm devoted to sentimental items that can be repurposed. Those small, everyday things we take for granted and ultimately become invisible, yet play a big role in our lives. Don't throw them away, make something meaningful. Monty Monty not only repurposes everyday vintage items, he reinvents them.

I first saw Monty Monty's work at the 2010 Handcar Regatta, and just discovered this new round of amazing assemblages from the show "Dangerous Toys and Other Forgotten Oddities" at the Quicksilver Mining Company in Northern California, on display through November 14th. I love the mix of domestic and the dangerous here - knives become toys, and toys become dangerous objects. An unexpected mix of menace and memory.

Below is Matt's Heartley, one of Monty Monty's memorial sculptures. An assemblage of many unexpected yet meaningful objects, some that belonged to the deceased, including his graduation ring. And of course, there's a "heart of gold" right in the center.

Monty Monty is available for commissioned work, please take a look here if you're interested. Here's the artist at the 2009 Handcar Regatta.

bound by love

Memorial services are about expressing love.

Like a wedding, we gather to declare our love, respect and honor. But instead of witnessing the love of two who are wed, we witness the encompassing love of friends, family, and all those whose lives were touched by the one gone before. Instead of till death do us part, we find out our love means death cannot make us part.

And we realize that our love is like a giant puzzle - all the little pieces come together to create an amazing portrait. I've been thinking about how best to capture this multi-faceted love. A book like this one by Quotes and Notes is a good way to gather collective memories. Divided into separate note cards, everyone can write a thoughtful note or memory. The fact that they are not bound like a book makes them more fluid - they can be spread out, flipped through, organized in any fashion that's meaningful.

I also love the simplicity and lack of frills with this design. Lovely.

Memorializing Michael

How will we remember Michael? What makeshift memorials will become his Graceland? I have the feeling his childhood home in Gary, Indiana will become the fans' final mecca. In the meantime, here are some items that are already appearing on Etsy:

RIP Michael Jackson Shirt by Queenkutie


Amigurumi Michael Jackson doll by amicafe


Michael Jackson Tote Bag by Bao Studio

Keepsake Shelves

How do we hold on to the momentos that remind us of our loved ones? I'm not a big believer in "shrines" - there's no beginning or end to them. And the word "shrine" feels like we need to worship, when really all we want to do is remember. But I love the idea of a keepsake shelf.


Sawdusty's Cabin at Etsy creates "Farmhouse Primitives" - shelf sitters, racks, signs, rolling pin/spice racks, the kinds of things you'd imagine in your great grandmother's kitchen. They evoke a specific mood and era, and seem like the perfect way to remember the vintage pictures, salt shakers, flour sifters, and other items that get handed down. I especially like how they feel at home in the kitchen, because let's face it - most of the items we inherit from our ancestral womenfolk are going to be from the kitchen.


Sawdusty's Keepsake Shelves, however, can be placed anywhere. I think they'd look especially nice as part of a bookshelf, holding grandma's old bible or grandpa's pipe. All those items we keep stored away because we don't know what to do with them finally have a home.

Memorial Photos

Most memorial pics are solemn and serious, formal sit-down portraits with the life sucked out of them. Is that how we really remember people? For me, it's those casual snapshots that hold the most personality. By transforming them into art, it's possible to elevate and honor the candid moment into something meaningful and fun.

Emmie Bean can transform that favorite snapshot into art. I love the humor (and even cheekiness) of this images. What a great way to immortalize the small yet significant moments that truly capture our favorite memories.

If you know someone who's recently gone through a loss, a gift certificate for one of these works would be a truly thoughtful gesture - much more unique than a bouquet of sympathy flowers, and also less expensive!

Ghost Bikes

We've all seen roadside shrines. They mark the place where a fatal accident has taken place. These makeshift memorials have their roots in a pioneer tradition - when someone died on the trail, the family would be forced to bury them on site, mark their grave, and sadly move on.

This "death on the road" tradition's latest incarnation is the Ghost Bike. It began when San Francisco artist Jo Slota spray-painted junked bikes. Cyclists soon appropriated this idea to mark the place where a cyclist was killed in an accident - a haunting warning to both motorists and cyclists.


Memorials make the invisible visible, and Ghost BIkes remind us of those who are no longer here. But these streetside memorials also make the dangers of everyday life visible. Be mindful, they seem to say. A modern day memento mori.


Click here to see the New York Times photo essay on Ghost Bikes.

For the Dearly Departed Artist

Did you know that the ashes from an average sized person provide enough carbon to create 240 pencils? London artist and product designer Nadine Jarvis has created "Carbon Copies", a unique urn that transforms ashes into the act of writing, material remains into ethereal musings.


The pencils are stamped with the name of the person whose ashes they contain. This beautiful wooden box also contains a sharpener, so every time the pencil is sharpened, the shavings return to the box, symbolically recreating the cycle "ashes to ashes". When the final pencil has been sharpened, ashes are once again resting in this box. But this time, they've also literally left behind written musings and memories. Imagine having a pencil of this significance! Every word I'd write would be meaningful, at least in gesture if not in thought. Every doodle would seem doubly inspired.

Nadine Jarvis has other work I hope to feature soon. Although her work is conceptual, I hope that someday this sort of thing is readily available. In the meantime, please check out her website: www.nadinejarvis.com.


Nadine Jarvis photo by Blyth.

My Life as a Book

I have always loved the metaphor of books as a life well lived. Every day is like a new page, and at critical junctures in our lives we close old chapters to begin new ones. As objects, books are like our bodies - they grow old, weathered, and are eventually destroyed, but their words live on in the hearts of others.

It's no coincidence that Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, the largest bookstore in the world, is also a coveted destination for dearly departed book lovers. Apparently many people have requested to be buried here, and according to Powell's blog, there are ashes beneath the Pearl Room (and I'm sure many others are surreptitiously scattered throughout the store.)


Yet it's the legendary Pillar of Books, a nine foot high column on Powell's northwest entrance, that stands as the ultimate memorial. This impressive column is carved to represent a stack of world classics. But it's actually an elaborate urn - an reader's ashes are interred within. It's hard to pass by this column without reflecting on ones own mortality, which I suppose is the point of any good book.


I hope to see more urns or memorials that make use of books. So far, I've only found this expensive and stoic book urn, but it's a start.