Halloween Short List: (#2) Build Your Own Casket

Halloween Spider Exit, Casket Arts Building, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

Spider Walk, Casket Arts Building, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

Casket Arts Halloween, Casket Arts Building, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

There was a Halloween Open Casket event at the Casket Arts Building last weekend. We spent several days hanging out in our studio, visiting with community artists and art lovers who stopped by to view and talk about art.

One couple had just moved into the building and we were talking about how the entire 3rd floor was once filled with women who sewed silk casket linings for the Northwestern Casket Company. And the polished maple we were standing on contained patches of thrown away boards from the casket builders downstairs.

That got me to thinking about caskets and, well, things just snowballed from there. Here’s my short list of fun things to do on Halloween.

1) Take A Casket Decorating Class

All things associated with death, including obituaries, caskets, and burials used to be an art form. People spent painstaking hours building and decorating caskets with the art of Rosemaling or Dalmalning. And there are people who still excel at this craft.

Rosemaling is Norwegian decorative painting. In an interview, Casket Painting Uplifted by Folk Art Tradition, Alegria talks about how she got started in casket painting. It’s spiritual work for her:

I do what I do because I have been given opportunities to experience dying, death and loss in the biggest ways, and I want to take what I’ve learned and experienced and help transform grief to glory.

If you head over to the Alternative Funeral Monitor News, you can read the whole interview with Alegria and see a photograph of a casket with Rosemaling.

Here’s an excerpt:

I paint Folk Art, primarily Rosemaling, a Norwegian folk art. I also use other forms, including Dalmalning, which is Swedish flower painting, and Baurnermalerai, a Bavarian folk art. In fact, every country has specific ethnic folk art forms, with designs and patterns that have been used for centuries.

Rosemaling actually comes from the early itinerant painters who traveled throughout Scandinavia. They stayed with families, became part of the family and decorated precious dowry trunks, beams, walls, ceilings and pews in the churches for the people. This art helped to bring light, color and joy into the long, dreary, dark winters.

The patterns and designs invoked spirits that the wood carvers had first carved on the Viking ships, such as acanthus vines, serpents and dragons. The shapes have meanings which they incorporated into the designs of this early work.

In addition, in the earliest burial customs, people were buried wrapped in a shroud. Later, when customs started to change and people harvested timber and used planks of wood to make caskets to bury people in, the custom began of adorning and decorating caskets. The ancient motifs and designs I paint with rise from the subconscious that now really is a form of tribal art.

2) Learn To Build Your Own Casket

The North House Folk School up on the Harbor of Lake Superior in Grand Marais, Minnesota is offering a Build Your Own Casket class. I don’t know about you, but this looks fascinating and fun to explore. What better way to prepare for that final resting place.

There are photographs and more at the link below. Just scroll down the Woodworking page to get to the casket building class.

Bury Yourself In Your Work – Build Your Own Casket
Instructor: Randy Schnobrich
Session Options: 12/5/2008 – 12/7/2008

None of us are getting out of this alive, so you might as well bury yourself in your work. Join a growing number of independent-minded people looking for a more meaningful alternative to today’s burial arrangements. This course covers a range of important details such as: proper sizing, joinery, handle construction, hardware and design options.

The finished casket need not wait for a final departure before being put to use. Above-ground applications include use as bookshelves, coffee tables, storage containers and entertainment centers.

3) Read Old Obituaries (1920’s – 1950’s) & Write Your Own

This one offers immediate satisfaction. We’ve talked about the obits many times on red Ravine. After reading today’s obits, I’m stunned by the richness and character of the old obituaries, how people used to take time to honor people in death by writing about their lives.

Mom uses obituaries in her research on the family tree and they often lead to uncovering buried skeletons. What a treat!  It makes me wonder if there used to be people in a community who excelled at writing obituaries, writers that the grief-stricken would turn to to write the obit of a lifetime.

Here’s a link to FR – FZ section of a few Wisconsin ancestral obituaries. And a little bit about the poetic character of Anton N. Freng in this short excerpt from his obituary:

Anton Nilson Freng was born in Brottom, Norway, on July 31, 1852, and died at his home in South Valley, town of Summer, on November 6, 1933, having lived 81 years, three months and six days. He learned the painting trade under Master Erick Alm. In 1873, the family immigrated to America, stopping at Chicago for a few weeks and then making their home in LaCrosse, Wisconsin.

A.N. Freng was a man of action. He served on his school district board for many years, was an organizer and director of the Osseo Canning Company, and served for thirty years as director and agent for the Pigeon Mutual Fire Insurance Company. He was secretary of the South Valley church for the past 45 years.

Mr. Freng was the leader in his community. He was endowed with more than ordinary amount of common sense and courage. His neighbors depended upon his counsel. He was a man of sterling character. He had a kind and jovial disposition. He was loved and respected by all who knew him well. His oft repeated phrase, “Another of our old and venerable pioneers has gone to his well-earned rest” has again come true, and may we add that the greatest of them all has gone.

Coming from a foreign country at the age of 21, not knowing a world of English and having had but little schooling, he rose to heights and power unsurpassed by many who had much greater advantages. He was great because he had ability, because he was honest and sincere. He expended his energies in the right direction, for the betterment and advancement of his community and country. The world is better for his having lived.

      -Written by J. Reese Jones. THE WHITEHALL TIMES – NOVEMBER 15, 1933

 

Mr. Ghoul, & Pumpkin Man, Casket Arts Building, Minneapolis, Minnesota, October 2008, photo © 2008 by QuoinMonkey. All rights reserved.

Any takers? There’s nothing boring about death and dying folks. And for an extra special treat, visit Heather’s blog, Anuvue Studio. She goes crazy every Halloween with all things wild and wonderful.

Happy Halloween. Happy Day Of The Dead. Happy Samhain.

    

-posted on red Ravine, Friday, October 31st, 2008

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Because At Age 19, I Wanted To Die Famous

In her post on names and the importance of names, QuoinMonkey wrote that “When we are long gone, our names are the one thing that will live on through time. My great, great grandmother wanted to be remembered by the things she loved. What epitaph would you want next to your name?”

A rich conversation ensued. QM asked me if I had ever thought much about my epitaph, to which I said, “I haven’t thought about an epitaph, QM, probably because I have this notion that if I do something like that, then I’ll suddenly and completely unexpectedly die and everyone will say, Wow, and she was *just* talking about her epitaph!”

Well, today while organizing almost 30 years of journals, I opened up an old spiral notebook and found an obituary I had written for myself when I was 19 years old. It filled one-fourth of a college-ruled page and was written in the tiny, compressed handwriting that was my hallmark during that time.

Here’s what it said (my name is blanked out):

____ ________, the famous artist, died today at the age of 78. She was killed in Rome, Italy during a street riot in which she was involved. Ms. ________ began her career as a commercial artist in Seattle, Washington, eventually starting the successful ________ Advertising Co. Eventually, she sold the company and went on to become a controversial artist in New Mexico. During that time she and her family resided on the outskirts of Santa Fe. At the age of 62, she was offered a position to direct the School of Modern Art in Italy. There she drastically changed the art world and became world-renowned. She is survived by her husband, her two children, and five grandchildren.

I only vaguely recall writing this. I can’t remember if it was an assignment or if I was simply trying to figure out what I wanted to do with my life and thought that writing my obituary might reveal what was really important to me. Underneath the obituary, on five lines, are the following:

     Career goals?
     What to give up
     Why do I want
     Goals narrow or broad? Why?
     What could interfere w/plans? Enhance plans?

I’m left wondering, what does this obituary say about me? I wanted to be successful, controversial, world-renowned. I wanted to change the world and die fighting for what I believed in. I wanted to be sophisticated, a world traveler, multi-national even. I lived on the outskirts of Santa Fe, and here I picture Georgia O’Keeffe except not Georgia O’Keeffe, her alter-ego instead, a fiesty old woman who would take to the streets of Rome to die.

Clearly I haven’t done enough in the past 27 years to contribute toward making my obituary come true. I do have a husband and two children, but this whole part about drastically changing the art world…well…

I’m certain my obituary would be different were I to write it anew. I’d give up the death-by-street-riot, living in Rome, and drastically changing the art world. I’m not even sure I’d go for being world-renowned. The five grandchildren sound pretty cool, so I’d keep those. And I’d definitely add 15 years to my final age, just to make sure I’m around long enough to enjoy the grandkids if I ever do have any.


-Related to posts The Uses Of Sorrow – What Is It About Obituaries? and Reading The Obits.

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