HUNGRY

GHOSTS ART EXHIBITION

AN EXHIBITION OF ARTWORKS INSPIRED BY PEGGY BLAIR’S LATEST NOVEL

Inspector Ricardo Ramirez investigates a string of dead prostitutes from Cuba to Canada in this carefully constructed mystery from award-winning author Peggy Blair.

Murders always multiply when there’s a full moon, Inspector Ricardo Ramirez knows. As he’s investigating a vandal in the art world, a ghost appears by Ramirez’s side…a sure sign that another murder victim is on the way. Ramirez’s fears are confirmed when a dead prostitute is found in Havana with nylons wrapped tightly around her neck, an MO that connects to his only cold case.

When another woman’s body is discovered in a similar condition on a First Nation reserve in Northern Ontario, Detective Charlie Pike struggles to determine whether the murder is a standalone crime or if the Highway Strangler has struck again. Before long, both detectives find themselves tracking a killer whose reach extends further than they could have imagined. As the pressure mounts, Inspector Ramirez has to piece together the clues and track down an international serial killer before his government silences him.

Hungry Ghosts

Hungry Ghosts Art ExhibitionI had always wanted to write a book about an art heist, which is part of the plot of Hungry Ghosts. But I also had a rather fanciful idea: an art exhibition inspired by the book.

Thanks to the efforts of Ottawa artist Sharon VanStarkenburg and Sharon Louden, the Senior Critic for the New York Academy of Art, seventeen incredibly talented artists from Ontario and the U.S. volunteered to read Hungry Ghosts and create a piece of art. As it turned out, some created more than one. You’ll be as amazed by their brilliance as I am by their generosity.

The exhibition will run during June, 2015 at Cake and Shake, a bakeshop/gallery in Hintonburg, in the heart of the Ottawa arts district. A huge shout out to Michael Holland, the owner, for offering to host it.

~ Peggy Blair 

Ola AldousOla Aldous was born in Ukraine and moved to the US as a child. She received her BM in piano performance from Crane School of Music in 2005, and her BFA in visual art concentration in painting from SUNY Potsdam in 2013. Her recent awards include: • 2014-First Place in 43rd Annual Juried

Art Exhibition in Lebanon PA• 2014-First and Third Place in 14th

Annual Juried Art Show Sackets Harbor NY

• 2014-Best in Show in Juried Landscape Show, Lancaster PA.

http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/318179-ola-aldous

OLA ALDOUS

Title: Long AwaitingMedium: Oil on canvasDimensions: 50"x52"Price: $8,500 CAD

Inspiration"Combining the narrative of the book with the process of letting the painting evolve on its own brought focus to the two prostitutes, Antifona and LaNeva Otero, whose lives ended in brutal murders.

"I wanted to preserve the beauty and the passion of these young women whose devastating circumstances led to their loss of life. In the painting, the two sisters merge into one as the life force falls off of their animal-like bodies similar to the way flowers lose their petals.

"The painting reveals their strength as they search for justice and yet continue to mourn their own deaths."

~ Ola Aldous

Joan BoswellSeveral years after she completed a PhD in history at the University of Ottawa, Joan Boswell returned to the university and completed the course work for a BFA in studio. She has participated in many group shows and had ten single shows as well as four posters produced by Posters International.

While continuing to paint, she experimented with fiction writing. She contributed to all seven Ladies’ Killing Circle anthologies and has had four mystery novels published.http://joanboswell.ca/aboutauthor

JOAN BOSWELL

Title: Hungry Ghosts IMedium: Ink and watercolourDimensions: 12¾"x 8¾"Not for sale

JOAN BOSWELL

Title: Hungry Ghosts IIMedium: ink and watercolourDimensions: 12"x 8¼"Not for sale.

Inspiration

"Inspired by the thought of the hungry ghosts lurking about ready to give advice, I saw them as beings tangled in the swirls of mist as they struggled to free themselves and deliver their advice."

~Joan Boswell

Charis Carmichael BraunCharis Carmichael Braun grew up in New Ulm, MN. After an exchange year in Switzerland, she earned her BA from Bethany Lutheran College and her MFA from the New York Academy of Art. 

Charis‘s artwork is bound to themes about vulnerability, projection and reconciliation, drawing from her faith and familial relationships. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and may be found in both private and public collections. 

Charis lives and works in New York.http://www.charisjcarmichaelbraun.com/

CHARIS CARMICHAEL BRAUN

Title: Where Do We Go From Here [Janus]Medium: acrylic on boardDimensions: 11"x 8½"Price: $775 USD

Inspiration"T he relationship between the two victims in Hungry Ghosts intrigued me: they were so very different – separated by thousands of miles, opposite socioeconomic statuses, dissimilar experiences - yet bound by a connecting thread … I kept seeing these two women victims together in the same image and I anticipated pulling more threads of similarity to bind them together as I read further into the book…. "I was reminded of the mythical two-headed Roman god, Janus. When I was in Rome so very long ago, I saw a statue of Janus that looked like me - it had my profile(s)! So I quietly filed the sculpture in the back of my mind, hoping to bring it out in the future. It has since lingered, tapping a constant reminder, much like Inspector Ramirez’ ghosts… so for this project, I am pulling that idea and invoking the concept of the dissimilar women of Hungry Ghosts in an image fitting into my current series, ‘Sit with Me, Stay With Me.’"

~ Charis Carmichael Braun

Dorothy CochranDorothy is a well-known New York area printmaker, acknowledged for her broad command of multiple print methods

A two-time recipient of a NJ State Council on the Arts fellowship. Dorothy taught at Columbia University, City University of New York, Manhattan Graphics Center and is a faculty member at The Montclair Art Museum.

Dorothy has an MFA from Columbia University and an MA, BA from Montclair State University. www.dorothycochran.com

DOROTHY COCHRAN

Title: Consequences of EmotionMedium: Encaustic Collagraph Size: 15"x 22½"Price: $450 USD

Inspiration

"Emotions in Hungry Ghosts by Peggy Blair ricocheted at a feverish pace from Canada to Cuba. My print ‘Consequences of Emotion’ responded to the change of visual environment, snow juxtaposed to heat, to the disturbing back stories of the major characters, and the layers of their complicated histories.

"The colours and energy of the gestures of my work express the fast pace of these interconnected stories."

~ Dorothy Cochran

Patricia DusmanPatricia Dusman is an award winning artist originally from New York City, now residing in Doylestown, PA. She studied printmaking and photography at Bard College. She has participated in art fairs and group shows and been published in international artist publications and exhibition catalogues.

Patricia recently received an award for her painting "Stormy" at the 85th Annual Phillips Mill Art Exhibition, New Hope, PA. Her work can be found in private collections throughout the US. www.patriciadusman.com

PATRICIA DUSMAN

Title: Hidden GhostsDimensions: 24" x 24"Medium: Encaustic on panel Price: $1,600 USD 

Inspiration"While reading Peggy Blair's Hungry Ghosts, I was drawn to the rich description of the scenes set in Cuba, the sites, sounds, and energy. I was imagining the vibrant colors of the setting including smears of red representing both lipstick and murder. 

"Part of my process is to imbed the written word into the layers and surfaces of my paintings. I inscribed a few selected passages from the book into the painting in order to further connect the visual with the story. Some of the text can be seen and the rest is buried in the depths. The center of the piece draws you in while the edges are veiled by wisps of translucent color, the ghosts, as if they were hovering around watching."

~ Patricia Dusman

Ron GoodlinRon Goodlin is a renowned photographer and winner of many international awards He has had numerous juried, one man, and group shows including the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition, Toronto Image Works, an across Canada tour of the Vistek Galleries, and has an upcoming show at the Aurora Cultural Center.  Ron has had several photos featured on the National Geographic website and was recently awarded the Stuart Freedman Trophy as Photographer of the year for the GTCCC.   www.rgphotoart.com

RON GOODLIN

Title:  Orchestrating the InspectorMedium: original photographic

print*   Dimensions: 19"x 27" framedPrice: $155 CDN ($30 will be donated to the Princess Margaret Foundation for Cancer Research)

*Hand printed, matted and framed by the artist on archival acid and lignin free pH buffered finer based archival paper

Inspiration"The inspiration for this combined image of a ghostly figure magically playing the cello is a representation of the overall theme of the book series. (Note how the bow is running across the strings with the mere direction from the hand of the ghost, in the same way the ghosts are trying to direct Inspector Ramirez through their own hand gestures and body language to help him solve their own murders as he orchestrates the investigations) …

"This landscape is akin to the native reserves on the shores of Long Reach as it empties into Lake Ontario, home of the Tyendinaga Mohawk band. (It is also quite similar to the Michipicoten reserve near Wawa, Ontario.)" ~ Ron Goodlin

Linda LyonsLinda Lyons attended Boston University on a full scholarship as a painting major. Her earliest memories are of drawing as a youngster at the beach of her native Marblehead.In 1996, she was accepted into the Yale School of Art's Summer Graduate Program in Design in Brissago, Switzerland. She applied to the Masters Program at WCSU for an MFA in painting, where she met and was influenced by William Bailey and Stanley Lewis. In addition to recently completing graduate school, she has had two large solo shows in Darien, CT and has shown with the Blue Mountain Gallery in Chelsea, NYC. http://westconnartviews.blogspot.ca/2012/09/linda-lyons-rynkowski-mfa-11.html

LINDA LYONS

Title: 75Medium: Oil on panel Dimensions: 12" x 12"Price: $2,250 CAD

Inspiration"Above the paintings, the intruder had sprayed the number 75….

"This whole thing reminds me of Guernica," said Gatti.

"Guernica?" asked Ramirez.

"It’s a painting by Picasso. The most famous anti-war painting in the world. It was in the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the 1970s when someone sprayed it with red paint."

Excerpt from Hungry Ghosts~ Linda Lyons

Benjamin MartinsBenjamin Martins produces delicate, small- to mid-scale watercolor paintings of ghostly images of children, resonant with references to the inexorable passage of time and the generations. He culls his subjects from old photographs, mostly dating from the 1940s and ’50s, transforming them into the sketchily rendered, partially formed figures, which seem to emerge out of his saturated brushstrokes.

For Martins, children represent the fleetingness of life. He sees them as replacements for adults, living proof that we are all advancing toward the inevitable end of our existence.

New York Academy of Arts, MFA 2011 University of Massachusetts, BFA 2008

www.benjaminmartins.com

BENJAMIN MARTINS

Title: First GhostMedium: Watercolor on Paper mounted on panelDimensions: 10" x 10" Price: $600 CAD

BENJAMIN MARTINS

Title: Second SightMedium: Watercolor on Paper mounted on panelDimensions: 10"x 10" Price: $600 CAD

Inspiration

"My images were inspired by the idea of the after image left behind after a violent death, in the form of second sight, visions, and apparitions."

~ Benjamin Martins 

Apryl MillerApryl Miller is a visual artist who produces personal, intimate work which speaks of our universal state of imperfection and how it binds us together. Her work resides at the intersection of joy and sorrow. 

Apryl has been profiled in Hyperallergic, Salon.com, Milk Made of Milk Studios, the Saks Fifth Ave. Blog, E-ratio Poetry Magazine, Konstvarlden. Her work has been showcased on MTV and HGTV. She has collaborated with Zoe Kravitz, Saks Fifth Ave, Working Mother, Lee Jeans and Glamour Magazine A popular lecturer, she is a graduate of FIT and resides in NYC. www.aprylmiller.com

APRYL MILLER

Title: Crows and PeligrososMedium: Mixed MediaDimensions: 30"x 24“x2”Price: $2,500 USD

Inspiration"In reading this great mystery story, I was struck by a sense of haunting loss. It resonates beyond the murders portrayed, of women in Cuba and indigenous women of Canada, to permeate generation after generation.  

"The disposable women are merely by-products of the forced erosion of once abundant societies, with economies now held together with a maze of staples and paper clips.

"My painting, with the addition of language and 3-D objects, speaks to the decay, through ignorance and hubris, of cultures that were once rich and self sustaining. Hungry Ghosts is a must read, it’s a page turner. Like my painting, there’s so much more than meets the eye."

~ Apryl Miller

Zaneta PernicovaZaneta Pernicova was born in the Bohemian region of Czech Republic in 1979. Her family emigrated to Austria during the end of the Cold war, then moved to Canada in the early 1990s.

Zaneta's career as an artist is in its eleventh year of prolific creativity and painting. Her medium of choice has become oil paint, gold and resin with the use of some collage.

Zaneta currently resides in Wakefield, Quebec www.zanetapernicova.ca

ZANETA PERNICOVA

Title: Omens (Chapter 10)Medium: Oil on gallery canvasDimensions: 12" x 12"Price: $200 CAD

Inspiration"Pike pulled the sheets aside, shaking the dream from his head. Snarling dogs fought while a fox watched quietly. He envisaged his mishomis frowning at the bad omens. His grandfather, a trapper, had relied on signs like these to get him through winter safely. It worked pretty well, until the waters of Manomin Bay dragged him back to the Creator."

Excerpt from Hungry Ghosts~ Zaneta Pernicova

Lauren Amalia ReddingLauren Amalia Redding lives and works in Astoria, Queens, New York. She received her B.A. from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois and her M.F.A. from the New York Academy of Art. Lauren has exhibited from Tokyo to Chicago and New York—including a solo show at Chicago’s renowned Palette and Chisel Academy of Fine Arts in 2008. She has been featured as one of "Today’s Masters: Artists Making Their Mark" by Fine Art Connoisseur magazine, and in October 2015, will be an artist-in-residence at the Florence School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy. www.laurenredding.com

LAUREN AMALIA REDDING

Title: Prima VerrierMedium: Silverpoint on gessoed and torn Bristol paperDimensions: 10" x 8" unframedPrice: $400 CAD (approx. $320 USD)

Inspiration"My mother’s family emigrated from Cuba in 1968... Acute pain and tragedy seem to be requisites for Cubans leaving the island. In Cuba, there’s a lot of irony: the human rights abuses of its totalitarian, Marxist dictatorship necessitate humans to further abuse their own well-being—both mentally and physically—to escape.  "Abuela (my grandmother) tells me that I have a couple of cousins who work as jineteras in La Habana, but the details are murky, because no one wants to admit that. ... Reading Hungry Ghosts proved almost uncomfortable for me, imagining family members I’ve never met as victims Prima Verrier, LaNeva Otero, and Antifona Conejo."

~ Lauren Amalia Redding

Title: LaNeva OteroMedium: Silverpoint on gessoed and torn Bristol paperDimensions: 10" x 8"Price: $400 CAD (approx. $320 USD)

LAUREN AMALIA REDDING

Inspiration"I chose the three jinetera victims for simple, straightforward portraits. Whereas I usually work from photographs or models, I drew the three faces from my imagination. I wanted to add lines around the eyes of otherwise young, beautiful women. I wanted to render faces in a way that ennobled them.

"I drew them without garish makeup, without hair done, bare, completely nude—firmly nude and not naked, not crude or vulgar—and vulnerable. I wanted to draw them as their most organic selves, as young women alert and distrusting and unsure and guilty. I wanted to portray them as Magdalenes as opposed to simply prostitutes."

~ Lauren Amalia Redding

LAUREN AMALIA REDDING

Title: Antifona ConejoMedium: Silverpoint on gessoed Bristol paperDimensions: 10"x 8" Price: $400 CAD (approx. $320 USD)

Inspiration"My medium is all too fitting for this task. I draw in the anachronistic, pre-Renaissance medium of silverpoint, which means that rather than draw with graphite or charcoal, I draw with a piece of silver wire in a stylus, making delicate, non-erasable lines out of precious metal.

"Like any spoon or piece of jewelry, the drawing itself tarnishes over time. It is in a state of constant evolution, a poetic concept when coupled with the fact that the drawing is highly reflective, ephemerally shifting in myriad light. In places, the paper is ripped, the rendering unfinished. Memory and the fleeting narrative of life are evoked and echoed in the silverpoint’s tremendous capacity for transience.

"In turn, that serves as a sorrowfully adept metaphor for the transience of the lives of the three jineteras I drew."

~ Lauren Amalia Redding

René RivardRené Rivard was born in Northern Québec but has lived in both Québec and Ontario. After teaching a few years, he went to study art at the École des beaux arts de Montréal.

He paints for himself and has seldom exhibited. His rent-paying job has been mostly involved working in the field of mental health and deafness.

He hopes to communicate through his art as one would want to do in sign language, through structure, colour, and composition. http://renerivard.com

RENÉ RIVARD

Title: Resting PlaceMedium: Acrylic on canvasDimensions: 30"x 40"Price: $1,200 CAD

Inspiration"The painting which I entitled Resting Place was inspired by two passages in the book. One is before the very beginning of the book (the prologue) and mentions a hare sitting under a pine tree with branches bending under the weight of the snow. You can’t see the hare in the painting (white on white).  "The other is at the end of the book when Charlie Pike visits the burial site of his father: ‘The way the dark water gleamed, it almost looked like mercury.’"

~ René Rivard

Franciscus van Boxtel

Franciscus van Boxtel is a native of the Netherlands, living in Canada since 1977, on farms, in small towns, and in cities, currently residing in the Aylmer sector of Gatineau. A lifelong artist, Frank has been painting in acrylic on canvas for the last 14 years. His main subject matter over that time has been pet portraits on a commission basis, as well as some portraits of people. His work can be found in Canada, the US, Europe, and Australia. Frank's love of animals equals his love of art. Frank and his partner currently live with two parrots, a cat, two dogs, as well as the occasional rescued foster dog. http://www.franciscus.ca/gallery.html

FRANCISCUS VAN BOXTEL

Title: MurderDimensions: 36" x 18"Medium: Acrylic on gallery wrapped

canvas Price: $500 CAD, of which Frank will donate 20% to his local women's shelter.   

Inspiration"My painting ‘Murder,’ was inspired by the scene in the book in which Pauley Oshig said it was the crows who showed him where the murder victim's body was. Though often misunderstood and associated with death, I'm fond of the species as they are intelligent and playful, and beautiful in their shiny blackness."

~ Franciscus van Boxtel

Sharon VanStarkenburgSharon VanStarkenburg was born in Pembroke, ON. She earned her B.F.A. from the University of Ottawa in 1997 and upon graduation received the First Place Visual Arts Prize. She received a City of Ottawa Professional Artist Funding grant in 2006 and an exhibition grant from The Ontario Arts Council in 2015. In 2007 studied at New York University, working toward a M.A. Studio Degree. She has exhibited internationally and is included in numerous collections. She is currently represented by Wall Space Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario where she also resides and works. http://sharonvanstarkenburg.artspan.com/

SHARON VANSTARKENBURG

Title: Every Contact Leaves A TraceMedium: oil on wood panelDimensions: 16" x 20"Price: $950 CAD

Inspiration"The elements that I drew on for these pieces from the novel were themes of communication, or lack thereof; vulnerability and strength; otherworldliness and the visceral; signs; and omens.  The ghosts were mute, yet tried to gesture and convey meaning and there was also reference to communication with crows.

"For me the crows refer to both death (carrion) and the spirit world.  In these pieces there are floating hands making shadow birds, also a mute form of communication.  The hands are also done in a more illustrative style, as if from a guide on communicating with shadows. In this painting, the crow actually emerges from the woman's mouth, as if it has stolen her voice.  She stares out at the viewer."

~ Sharon VanStarkenburg 

SHARON VANSTARKENBURG

Title: The Exchange PrincipleMedium: oil on wood panelDimensions: 16" x 20"Price: $950 CAD

Inspiration"In The Exchange Principle, the woman is drawing back on a bow, casting a blurry shadow as she is in movement. In this painting one crow clamps its beak down on the neck of another.  "There is a sense of malevolence and foreboding in both paintings. I wanted both figures to be both self possessed and vulnerable, as the murdered women in the novel would have been."

~ Sharon VanStarkenburg 

Pamela WinegardPamela Winegard is a mixed media artist and art educator.  She is an Arts & Science Council CSA 2014 Artist. She was a 2012 Artist-In-Residence at the McColl Center for Visual Art & Innovation. She received both a fellowship and a grant to attend artist residencies at the Vermont Studio Center 2012-2014. Pamela has been in international, national, and regional juried exhibitions and has been awarded several exhibition honors including Best of Show and First Place awards. She has had a number of significant solo shows and group shows including at the Mint Museum of Art and upcoming at the Spartanburg Art Museum. www.pamelawinegard.com

PAMELA WINEGARD

Title: TransitionsMedium:  Encaustic, mixed media, and graphite drawing on paper mounted on stretched canvasSize:  20”x15”Price: TBD

Inspiration

"I really enjoyed the layers of connections to the past, present, and in some cases the future, in the storyline.  The weaving of ubiquitous myth and iconography between cultures and geographies tied the communities together in ways that reflected back on the characters enriching the traditions and story. Those vibrant images resonated with my own visual narratives and inspired ‘Transitions’."

~ Pam Winegard

Thanks and appreciation!

As always, I am indebted to Simon and Schuster for their incredible support.

Thanks also to Lorraine Glendenning for putting this digital exhibition together; I hope you all enjoyed it!

And to all these remarkable artists, I love you all--thank you so much!

~ Peggy Blair

Exhibition Venue

The physical exhibition will run during the entire month of June, 2015 at Cake and Shake, a bakeshop/gallery in Hintonburg in the heart of the Ottawa arts district.

As well as all the works from the digital exhibition, there will be additional pieces by Ottawa artists Natasha Beaudin and Dominique (Mique Michelle) Boisvenue.

Huge thanks to Michael Holland for hosting this remarkable collaboration!

Holland’s Cake And ShakeHolland's Cake and Shake is a new arrival to Ottawa’s Hintonburg arts district.

Michael Holland (or @Pastry Overlord, as he's known on Twitter) has been a pastry chef for over twenty years, but he honed his skills helping his grandfather make bread and baked goods as a young child. Originally from Toronto, he has worked across the country with top chefs including Marc Lepine of Atelier in Ottawa and Michele Mercuri of Hotel St. James in Montreal. He is known for his original and inventive approach to desserts, both sweet and savory.

He also makes killer sandwiches, perfect for the launch of a new mystery novel!

www.cakeandshake.ca

Directions to Holland’s Cake and Shake