AshesToAshes

At last I can show the piece of artwork I created for Mary Witt’s last cigarette – her 3 month anniversary as a non-smoker is tomorrow 11/10/07 . Before I talk about the artwork let me tell you Mary’s story. Mary started smoking sometime in 1965 at twelve years of age and stopped smoking on August 10th, 2007 – 42 years later and after some 320,320 cigarettes inhaled. Her new monthly savings from not smoking has allowed her to make the monthly payments for a car that she calls her “silver bullet”. Mary is a participant in the ALA (American Lung Association) program and has been such an inspiration to me. I am SO proud of her. Her story is one of inspiration for me and so many other people! Congratulations Mary!!

And now let me tell you about the artwork. I wanted to keep the work inline with the one I created for Bishenjit i.e. I wanted it to be abstract and restrained and most importantly I wanted to create a temple to commemorate this life altering decision to become and to remain smoke free. At the same time, I wanted Mary’s temple to be recognized as a celebration. I had ordered 42 brass bells (one for each year of her quit) but I couldn’t get them to fit on the wood panel so I settled for a bell for each decade that she smoked (the bells do actually ring). The posts of the temple are made from cigarette packaging and represent the savings Mary has on a monthly basis that has allowed her to purchase her new silver bullet that she is so proud of. The main background color is red encaustic paint and represents the powerful strength that Mary found within her to make this quit and the background walls of the temple are Indian yellow to represent the Supreme Being. Once again I used gauze to symbolize the healing that has to occur within us and the cigarette is held in place with nails. The yellow cords are intended to represent Indian rakhi and in Indian culture are usually given by a sister to a brother once a year. The rakhi may also be tied on other special occasions to show solidarity and kinship (not necessarily only among brothers and sisters), as was done during the Indian independence movement. In this case it represents my friendship with Mary as we support each other in this quit. The final elements in the artwork are the wax paper strips or Japanese Shinto Shide – Shide are typically used in Shinto purification rituals. They are borrowed here to represent the freedom from the impurities of tobacco addiction.