Curator's Statement:

Written by Bill Madden

There are some belief systems that say the dead have gone to another place, A place from where they can see us, and guide us in our lives.

There are other belief systems that tell us that when people die they are just gone forever.

What is true in spite of our beliefs is that the people we have loved and the people we have hated will live on in our memories and shape our actions the rest of our lives. They may even haunt some of us.

In fact people there are people who are still alive, but have passed from us as if there had been a death. They are still there, lurking in the backs of our minds. Some we may even mourn, but we refuse to let them be part of our current life, or maybe we don’t dare.

It is my belief that we need to catalog those good and  bad influences that separate the sections of our life into colors, blacks, whites, bright oranges and the blues.

Then, as if we were a child paging through an old Sears catalog at Christmas time or browsing through e bay most anytime, we need to write down the catalog number and the price (including shipping) of those influences that we can use to help make us the person we want to be.

After all is said and done even the most influential people in our lives are just exactly like us, only human, and because of that their best may have not have been the best from our point of view.

What is most important is that we send in that catalog order form, with payment (including shipping), and make the best lives for ourselves we as human beings can.

Reflect for a second; maybe even go so far as to find a Math major to calculate those integers for you. I think you will find the number of people you will affect in your life is astounding. Just think about how they will see you in that catalog one gray December night, will they order the memories you have given them? Will the memories of you take the edge off their cold winter’s eve?

Curated by: Bill Madden, and Mark Youngsma

Featured Artists: Robert Allen, Alexandra Cramer, Kara Brooks, Debra Clark, Gerry Blakney, Shihang Huang (Aeon), Eric Loftin, Harold Mason, Sue Mason, Rebecca Marsh McCannel, Christian Rogers, Joe Smith, Mark Youngsma.