Celebrating the ten-year anniversary of FUNERIA’s first Ashes to Art® exhibition

The ten-year anniversary of anything has always presented us with reason to pause. It’s a good chunk of time. It marks a milestone in our relationships, careers, our age. Ten years is young for a child and old for a car. Though in Cuba, home of what must be the world’s most ingenious auto mechanics, cars can only be freely bought and sold that were on the road before Fidel Castro’s 1959 Revolution. Fifty-two year-old cars and they’re still running. Very impressive.

But I digress… as I have on many occasions over the past year in mulling over all that has occurred in the world and, closer to home, with the hopeful and ambitious venture that sparked FUNERIA’s public debut in 2001. Our website launched on April 4, 2001, making it possible for all interested artists who had seen our ads and notices to download the Call for Entries for the first international art competition dedicated to original contemporary cremation urns, vessels, reliquaries and personal memorial artworks.

Ashes to Art’s Opening Reception on Thursday, November 29, 2001, was as spectacular as the storm that preceded it at San Francisco’s historic Fort Mason Center Firehouse.

Ten years later, we have finished the online portion of our 5th biennial exhibition, though we’re still actively engaged in offering exquisite work in our gallery that artists have entrusted to our care. We are as eager as we were in 2001 to provide a unique object that is both beautiful and meaningful to honor a life that is exactly that.

We have other news in store… very good, exciting news. Prepare to be drawn into the pages of the 5th biennial international Ashes to Art® exhibition catalogue, which will be available before the close of this anniversary decade. It is a book that celebrates the entire ten years and will be available to order and ship easily online.

Until then, here’s to your beautiful life!

Artists create priceless cremation urns for everyone

If you have been one of the more than 19,000 visitors to see FUNERIA’s Ashes to Art® exhibition online since October 2010, you may have wondered why we didn’t post prices until January 2011 for all of the spectacular original artworks in our 5th biennial exhibition. Here’s why:

When neighbors, friends, supporters and hundreds of visitors arrive from nearby cities and throughout the world to attend our international exhibitions at FUNERIA’s Sonoma County Art Honors Life® gallery, we believe their special effort deserves not only a warm welcome but a special advantage–one of which is a first look at the prices that each of the artists has set for their own work.

While the Internet offers many interactive opportunities for the curious mind, sculpture and installations are fully appreciated only where we can experience their mass or their delicacy and feel their impact in relation to ourselves.

Textures, scale, colors and fine details may be represented fairly well online, but stepping into a physical environment, touching the work, recognizing why both the setting and artworks were created, and why a distinguished panel of arts professionals selected them, requires a trip. So, we reward those who travel to our exhibitions with a bonus. They are the first to know that some artists, eager to see their work purchased and enjoyed, have set modest prices. Gallery visitors learn that all of the superbly crafted funerary urns and personal memorial artworks, including those at the highest end, are more fairly priced than they expected to find while seeking a unique means to honor a life they’ve loved.

Now it’s your turn to find out that one of the highest scoring artworks among the jurors, which was also the second highest scoring People’s Choice contest vote recipient, is a stunning, sophisticated, and exquisitely crafted original artwork with an exceptionally appealing price. We’ve checked to be sure an extra zero wasn’t missing.

You’ll also find pieces priced at several thousand more, and we don’t always have the very best photos posted to represent them in their full glory. Ask us if they’re still available however, and if they are, ask to see better images so that we can help convey some of the details that warrant your scrutiny and appreciation. We’ll tell you about the artists themselves–their inspiration, education, grants and awards received.

FUNERIA is proud to represent gifted artists–to promote, advertise and champion them in any way we can. Apart from developing original concepts and applying superb skill in executing them, we know that many hours, expensive tools and materials are required to create each piece.

The value of what we offer and our artists create is more than monetary. This is work that is created to serve a special purpose. It is artwork that is intended to honor a unique life. It may be for an adult with a lifelong passion for exploring the natural world and universe–seeking beauty and studying its secrets; a pet that has retrieved every tennis ball you’ve thrown, carried you on its back or helped keep you warm at night. It may be for a child who hadn’t enjoyed nearly enough of life, but knew the beat and fullness of their mother’s heart. It could be for you. What will your urn look like?

This is art worth seeing, touching and enjoying—even without serving a functional purpose. It is meaningful, evocative, original and superbly crafted. It is meant to be enjoyed and to stand in for us when we’re no longer here to speak for ourselves.  Open our online catalogue and ask us how we can help you acquire exactly what you want and surely deserve.

Here’s to your beautiful life!