Loved ones live on in art (Made from their ahses)

[The Straight Story]

Raven Collins puts her heart and other people's souls into her art.

The 37-year-old Thonotosassa artist has been sketching for more than 15 years, specializing in detailed hand-drawn portraits. Nowadays, most of her commissioned work incorporates an unusual ingredient: Cremated remains — ashes — brushed right into the portrait.

It's a fast-growing trend in the art world, though Collins says she is the only one she's aware of who uses ashes in sketch drawings. Others mix remains in the paint of abstract works, and some sculptors put cremated remains in jewelry or glass. One artist in Canada compresses cremated remains and puts them into pencils. "Like lead," Collins says.

She didn't want to copy anybody when she got the idea a few years ago. Rather, she let it percolate for a while before deciding to create her Portraits From Ashes studio and use cremated remains in her drawings.

"I try to think outside the box," she says.



http://www2.tbo.com/content/2011/apr/04/PMENEWSO1-loved-ones-live-on-in-art/

[ellenfl]

1. made fro their what? eom