Grave images

by Kathy T. Hettinga

"Beginning in 1993, photographer, designer, and installation artist Kathy T. Hettinga began a fourteen-year project to document an unknown body of folk art displayed in the cemeteries of the San Luis Valley in southern Colorado. The book begins with the author's story of personal loss as a young widow living in the San Luis Valley. years later, the beauty of the valley was relentless in calling her back to document the places and the ways peopel honor those who have died. 'Grave Images' recounts Hettinga's spiritual and artistic journey to find meaning in the cemeteries of rural and largely Hispanic communities of the San Luis Valley. Her photographs of unique grave markers made of wood, concrete, metal, sandstone, glass, and other materials by individuals or families to commenorate the passing of loved ones capture the etheral beauty of the cemeteries and serve as a touchstone for our common understanding of loss, grief, and the need to memorialize and pay tribute. Hettinga's illumina