Speaking Through Art
Questions & Answers
Marilyn Gross loved to listen. Ideas, sounds, feelings, she loved to listen to them all. She would speak in words, but she preferred to speak through her works.
When asked about her works, Marilyn often reflected the question, asking for the inquirer’s observations. Then, she would listen some more.
Some inquiries, are well-served by specific answers. Here are some answers to the most common questions about Marilyn, her art and, most specifically, her Clair-Intuitive Presaging Masterpiece: Angels, Angels Everywhere.
If you have a question you don’t see here, you may contact us directly.
Q: Having created more than 800 catalogued works in her lifetime, how did Marilyn keep track of them all?
A: Like for human births, dates and names need be given and recorded.
Marilyn maintained a specific Artist’s Log, a chronological specialized registry she invented and designed collaboratively with her late physician husband, which she copyrighted and marketed to artists for years. She used the artist system herself and kept detailed records in it for over 30 years.
Q: Did Marilyn have different periods that her work could be grouped into?
A: Yes, Marilyn’s career spanned more than five decades during which there were many different identifiable periods of works.
The years 2000 & 2001 were an exceptionally prolific period of completion for Marilyn, logging over 21 completed and named major works, each of which took many months to create and complete. With multiple works underway at a given time, each gestated at its own rate, each gradually developed and unfolded, each awaited its ultimate birth and naming.
Q: When was the first time Marilyn shared Angels, Angels Everywhere with another person?
A: Her husband saw the work first with her in their home. Then, shortly after 9/11 when Marilyn’s youngest son, Kevin, made it ‘home’ to
seeming safety within just days of being allowed to fly again. A few
days after his arrival she shared the piece with someone him. These were
the first times she shared it with anyone.
Q: How did the initial 9/11 related discovery dialogue unfold?
A: About a day or so into Kevin’s visit Marilyn asked Kevin what he thought of her work on the mantle.
Glancing at it from across the living room, he said, “What is that called?” “Angels, Angels Everywhere,” she replied. Kevin then briefly observed the work.
“You’ve got to be kidding?” he astonishedly blurted out. As he, then she, continued to study the work, he said, “Can you see that?”, “…that looks like…” “Oh my…” “Did you realize…?” “How is that..??…”
And so it went with each of them. For days and weeks, months and years. As they each gradually came to grips with their astonishing realizations, each became more baffled, contemplative, solemn, full of wonders and increasingly aware of the work’s emerging layers, while vigilantly mindful of its story and sensitivities.
Q: When did Marilyn create Angels, Angels Everywhere?
A: Marilyn began Angels, Angels Everywhere in the Fall of 2000. It was completed in the Spring of 2001, months before the events of 9/11/01. Shortly thereafter, the work’s imagery was then discovered to have presaged those events and the resulting aftermaths. As such, Angels Angels Everywhere is believed to be the only such documented artistic work in the world to have somehow presaged the events of 9/11. As such, the work is of inherent special meaning and unique historic significance.
Q: What was Marilyn’s intention?
A: Marilyn’s career-long artistic intention was to create art that is beautiful, inspires, comforts and heals. Her primary working style was one of intuitive creation. She followed a process that often wove prayer, meditation and artistic finesse into creations that evolved into their final state.
Q: How did Marilyn feel about 9/11?
A: No words can effectively convey the magnitude of grief felt on that day and continuously experienced in the years that have followed.
Like the rest of the world’s good and peace-loving people, Marilyn was sickened and horrified, appalled amidst the gravely tragic events and the trailing impacts of 9/11 on our societies and world. She too felt the collective furor of the unimaginable losses and devastation. Prayers and tears, so many prayers and tears, painful questions, painful days and painful years.
Q: Why did Marilyn decide to share Angels, Angels Everywhere and its creation and discovery story rather than keeping it private and in her private collection.
A: Marilyn believed in telling the truth and sharing it. She hoped that by sharing this work and its story many might come to embrace in its hope, receive healing, and live more fully: emphasizing our inherent potentials for love, peace and harmony.
Q: Has this story been shared with those in leadership positions in our society and its institutions?
A: Yes, the story of Angels, Angels Everywhere is well documented and was shared informally and then formally with many leaders both past and present and with select institutions.
Even so, to this day, Angels Angels Everywhere and its story remains widely unknown.
Please share the work, its unknown story and its impactful messages among your communities.
Q: Has Angels, Angels Everywhere been exhibited publicly?
A: Yes, in 2011, Marilyn’s overall career achievements were acknowledged and a venue was offered to celebrate her and highlight a few of her works. Angels, Angels Everywhere was then exhibited for the first time in its only public exhibition.
Q: How can I help to raise awareness about Angels, Angels Everywhere and its messages?
A: Please share this unknown story of the work and its messages of Peace, Love, Comfort, and Healing throughout your communities.
Be well and be blessed.
Remember
Marilyn’s hope is Angels, Angels Everywhere emerged to inform, remind, comfort, and heal us.
Be blessed. And, share the story.