In keeping with the spirit of life
JUST inside the front door of Maria Munroe's house in Venice sits an abstract sterling silver sculpture of a star. It is a luminous, off-kilter, asteroidal shape, with a satiny shimmer that invites caress. Sealed inside are the cremated remains of Jeffrey Blumberg, a New York silver expert who died in 1996.
OK, the concept may be a bit hard to grasp. Munroe uses cremains in sculptures she designs as memorials that surviving loved ones can live with in their homes.
Every tabletop, floor space and corner of Munroe's home is filled with works, large and small, from her ongoing exploration of funerary art, along with pieces from her recent show at Frank Pictures Gallery in Santa Monica. Many of these, including the Blumberg star, were lent by Munroe's clients for the exhibit, and are awaiting their return.
Some are vessels that contain the ashes of the deceased. Others -- lead crystal and ceramic pieces -- had some ashes mixed in as the piece was being made (which is legal), so that the cremains become an integral part of the material. Other items include meditation beads, crystal orbs and glass bricks. Her works range from $3,000 to $30,000.
Munroe, who is wearing a crystal disc pendant that contains some of her Aunt Conchita's ashes, is one of very few artists who devote their entire output to working with cremains, says gallery owner Laurie Frank, who met the artist and first saw the sculptures about five years ago.
"The mind-blowing part for me," says Frank, "was realizing that the glass sculptures were actually made with human ash as part of the glass-blowing process -- and that they also act as containers for the ash -- so the deceased person is in the urn and also of it."
Munroe's art is part of a larger movement that reflects changing spiritual and practical attitudes about death and its rituals in the U.S.
As traditional burial space becomes less available and more expensive, more people turn to cremation as an alternative. Most religions accept cremation. "Seven years ago, no state had a 50% cremation rate," says Jack Springer, executive director of the Cremation Assn. of North America, which tracks cremation statistics. "Today, cremation rates are over 60% in Arizona, Nevada and Hawaii -- places where people tend to retire." California reached 51% in 2004, he says. And the country as a whole reached almost 31% that year.
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