Everybody Colors

Everything Dies! A Coloring Book About Life

If you are reading this, you’re alive.

Also if you are reading this, one day you will be dead.

I mean that. Really, I do.

Death is inevitable, important, and maybe even beautiful.

Everything Dies! A Coloring Book About Life! is a playful, poignant celebration and exploration of life and death.

In my 25th year, six loved ones and teachers died within an eight month period. I made this book as a way to meditate on and better understand death.This coloring book is a part of my personal healing process and is a reflection of my own experiences. What surprised me was this: every time I began to explore a part of dying, I inevitably was brought face-to-face with the immense wonder it is to be alive.

Everything Dies! is a 100 page coloring book that depicts, among other things, funeral rites from around the world, soil biology and decomposition, the mourning of loved ones, the legacies of human rights leaders, and modern embalming.

We often walk around pretending death doesn’t exist, but I think it’s healthy to face it every once in awhile. Life becomes so much more rich when we know we don’t get to live forever.

This is an important conversation to have. I hope this coloring book can be a part of your conversation.

Also, I made a coloring book because I love the idea of a piece of art being unfinished until someone else adds something to it. I’ve only started these drawings; they are yours to complete!

Water Ways is a series of pen and ink illustrations drawn by Bri Barton and Meg Lemieur telling the story of water and the effects that the natural gas industry has on the area commonly known as Pennsylvania and New Jersey. Each illustration consists of dozens of small vignettes that highlight people's struggles as they strive to protect the water and land on which we all survive.

In our interactive presentations, we discuss what fracking is, what Marcellus Shale is, how the politics in Pennsylvania have been built to support the industry, who is resisting and how, what systems in our culture support extractive and damaging industries like fracking, and an overview of what we are fighting for and why. We aim to connect attendees to local campaigns whenever possible.

Philadelphia Assembled is an expansive project that tells a story of radical community building and active resistance through the personal and collective narratives that make up Philadelphia’s changing urban fabric. These narratives will be explored through a collaborative effort between the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a team of individuals, collectives, and organizations as they experiment with multiple methodologies for amplifying and connecting relationships in Philadelphia’s transforming landscape. Challenging, inspiring, and as big as the city, Philadelphia Assembled asks: how can we collectively shape our futures?

I was invited to co-lead the illustrating of a massive 140’ mural that spanned the length of the exhibition with Charlene Griffith of Wholistic Arts . This City Panorama visualized the complex network of people, histories, and aesthetics that is PHLA. Each panel suggested a new framework through which to see the shifting landscape of the city, addressing the histories that are often made invisible by dominant systems and linear understandings of time. These ranged in scale from the personal, to the local, to the global. Through a number of scheduled panorama workshops, we invited collaborators and visitors to contribute to the artwork and fill in what was missing.

*Text from Philadelphia Assembled

Rompus creates large-scale, semi-improvisational paintings inspired by native flora, fauna, and landforms, often in collabration with local bands. We play with light, shadow, resists, and color. As we paint, our bodies are hidden from the audience but also backlit, so that our shadows are a part of our work and the focus remains on the imagery.

We are the art team for Beardfest , South Jersey’s premier art and music festival.

This is an evolving body of work connected to Water Ways. As I deepen my understanding of the watersheds upon which my community survives, these sketches and photographs are a part of my exploration of personhood, ownership, sentience, and possibilities for healing.

I adore plants. They are brilliant and beautiful and we wouldn’t exist without them. These are my love poems to the sun eaters. This is a growing series.

Below are watercolor studies from 2015. I am grateful to the medium for keeping my hand and mind loose.

Beautiful End of the World

This is a series I made in 2011. After graduating college and generating four years of work of paper, I created this collage series. I committed to making art without acquiring any new materials. Beautiful End of the World is my piecing together disparate pieces of my past to create new meaning, while grappling with radical politics, surveillance state, climate change, and Christian hegemony. Years later, this is still one of my favorite series.

These drawings emerged from a lifelong stream-of-consciousness process in which creatures emerge out of pen on paper. As faces and figures emerge, they become portraits of loved ones.

Collage reflections on migrating friends and family.

A series of underwater dreamscapes collaged from a life-sized drawing of a whale.

A selection of work from my time at Moore College of Art and Design. I graduated in 2011 Valedictorian with a double major in Curatorial Studies and 2D Fine Art.

Sections

Everybody Colors. Sanctum is an octennial art subscription inspired by the Wheel of the Year now available in my online store.

Everything Dies! A Coloring Book About Life — Everybody Colors. Everything Dies! A Coloring Book About Life! is a 100 page coloring book that depicts, among other things, soil biology and decomposition, funeral rites from around the world, mourning loved ones, the murders of human rights leaders, an

Sanctum // An Art Subscription — Everybody Colors. Sanctum is an octennial art subscription inspired by the wheel of the year.

Everything Dies! A Coloring Book About Life — Everybody Colors. If you are reading this, you’re alive.

Sanctum — Everybody Colors. Sanctum is an octennial art subscription inspired by the Wheel of the Year now available in my online store.

Philadelphia Assembled — Everybody Colors. Philadelphia Assembled is an expansive project that tells a story of radical community building and active resistance through the personal and collective narratives that make up Philadelphia’s changing urban fabric. These narratives will be explored through