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You can find H’Art Dating on page 88 and is super awesome!

When I was old enough to babysit I would draw with the kids to keep them occupied. Always teaching them what little I knew, even if they weren’t listening. Most kids would color alongside me and ignore my comments, however, Bethany and her siblings were completely engaged in the process.

As soon as their parents left the kids would race into their bedroom, grab some paper and ask me to make them a picture. I would sit on the sofa and they would clamoure all over me asking a million questions about what I was doing, how I was doing it and what I did with my life. In return, they would share their own thoughts and dreams about life. I was always amazed at how many plans and ideas they had.

The two oldest - Bethany and Jaimen - always lead the pack and were aggressively interested in everything about life. Constantly moving, they thought about what they saw from every new angle and wanted to know what it meant. Not much of a kid person, they were one of the few families I actually looked forward to babysitting.

Bethany’s family also happened to be one of only a handful that – like us - spent her school careers split between home and public school. A situation that causes kids to have a beautiful willingness to question authority and delightfully break-rules. Never willing to be blindly lead, Bethany could always find the craziest fun and asked the best questions. She never saw walls. Instead, Bethany lived life with a wide brush and painted thick bright strokes.

After I left for college my mom kept me continually updated on Bethany’s latest adventures. I always knew where she was and what she was doing and it made me burst with pride to see the young woman who I had known since birth living such a big life. She had kept her curious personality and continued to move through life in search of answers.

When my mom was killed, I returned home to Talkeetna. I opened my first art gallery and I continued to follow Bethany’s adventures through Linda and Billy – her parents. They always glowed when they talked about her. They couldn’t have been more proud of their daughter, and with good reason. Bethany was traveling the world during that time and her life was filled with adventure.

The way I remember it, Bethany was beyond beautiful in all the ways that matter. She was kind, funny, opinionated, passionate, interesting, inspired, exceptional, committed, athletic, smart, sexy, thoughtful, tough, loyal, a fighter, a friend and trouble in the best way. A woman who didn’t always do what she was told but she always did what she believed in.

Of course, in the end, all that really matters was the fact she was one of our own. She didn’t need to be amazing for us to love her. All we cared about was the fact she was Bethany and the rest was gravy. We love her because she is part of us.

Tonight, when I watch the 1.5 hr Dateline special about how her murder, I will be remembering a tiny baby just born, a laughing little girl who dreams of her first boyfriend, a volleyball player in trouble with her coach, a daughter being hugged by her mother and a young woman chasing her dreams.

Sadly, what you will see is a victim: a still photo on a screen.

When you Google her name after the show, you will see page after page of horrific stories - stories that don’t matter because those stories aren’t who Bethany is. Hopefully, someday we can change that. Maybe someday so many of us will share our memories online that we will be able to push those stories to the back.

Hopefully, someday, when you hear the name Bethany Correira you will also remember how wonderful she is and not how horrible her murder was.

You can read more about Bethany by visiting: www.rebeqa.com

Connect. Attend. Revitalize. Develop
Seattle Art C.A.R.D. Aiding in Artists’ Careers

Seattle, WA (May 22, 2008) – Are you an artist in
Seattle who spends many rigorous hours a day in the
studio creating beautiful art? Are you a collector
who needs help keeping up with emerging artists and
cataloguing new acquisitions? Are you a small
art-business owner trying to make an impact on this
city’s art scene? La Familia is happy to present to
you C.A.R.D., a revolutionary new way to participate
in the arts, build a creative career, and develop a
successful small business through the sharing of
resources and the support of community.

This innovative new program allows artists,
collectors, and art professionals to share
information, build events, network, and play together.
Membership gives you access to professional services,
yoga classes, concerts, lectures, and opportunities.
Not only that, but it has been designed to facilitate
its existing community as well as to be open to
artists, collectors, and art programs just getting
started.

This ground-breaking new community gives you what is
required to be competitive in today’s creative
marketplace. To learn more about C.A.R.D., go to
www.seattleartcard.org.

This is important problem solving that gives answers
to the questions many creative Seattleites have been
asking. Don’t let your career stall because you can’t
afford proper documentation services, editing, website
development, professional coaching, or community
support. You don’t have to do it all yourself, let La
Familia Gallery’s C.A.R.D. community help. There
really are clear steps one can take to get ahead in
Seattle’s Art World, and C.A.R.D. is ready to dish out
the details.

Discover a life lived with Less

Welcome to the La Familia Artist In Residence program, where artists find peace and respite from the modern world.

Originally acquired in 2000, the La Familia artist residence was opened to the public in 2008 as a unique opportunity for at least 29 artist and art administrators to retreat, reflect, and recover from lives over-run by expectation and commercial expectations.

It exists as a place for individuals in the arts to live with less: less stress, less noise, less technology, and less expectation. You live in a small village of approximately 600 people, the residence hosts only 3 – 4 guests at any given time, there is no TV, no internet, no franchise, no box stores, and no pressure to be anything beyond what you are.

Within the silence and the peace, you discover that what you need to create, what you need to live, and what you need to be truly happy is far less than you ever imagined.

So why is that? What makes a collector so enigmatic?

First, a strong collection is a sign of strong confidence.

It takes a confident, self-aware person to know what they like and have the tenacity to go after it. Especially when it is something as esoteric as contemporary art. Their decision to assertively purchase works is a reflection of their faith in themselves and their passions and that is as sexy as it gets.

Second, a strong collection is a sign of emotional awareness.

It sounds cliché, but it is true. Collecting art is an emotional experience that requires the buyer to be aware of what they are feeling and how the art object relates to those feelings. They have to be willing to admit those feelings to themselves and those who they view the work. Who doesn’t melt when someone they like gets all sensitive?

Third, a strong collection provides a quick way to get to the H’Art of the matter.

Having a strong collection of art to discuss helps you get past the BS a bit faster because you have a common ground. Within the work you can meet halfway and find the hidden connections you didn’t know existed. It takes you past the superficial, into the conversations that matter. Second date anyone? Plus, “Want to come back to my place and check out my art collection” is a pick-up line that never fails.

An Acknowledgement of Nature

Seattle, WA - April 17, 2008 - Artist and Contract Preparator for the Bellevue Art Museum, Tom Albers displays his work at La Familia Gallery this May. He takes a closer look at natural environments to build typically two-dimensional painting into high relief resembling sculpture. His unusual method and tactile result conveys his interpretation of the natural world. He is not simply painting Nature. Rather, he literally builds up his paintings to become Nature - imitating its subtleties, textures, and repetitions. Inspired by the great outdoors, this architectural painter is stretching the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional works while delivering Nature to his urban viewers. His intention is to bring focus back to what has been here all along.
Artist Meaning and Method,
A Different Approach

Tom Albers is not just painting-he’s building with paint. Layer upon layer of paint mixed with drywall mud, talcum, and sand-Tom Albers transforms two-dimensional art into high relief. The result is nothing short of sculptural. His works, brimming with unique application and personal vision, will exhibit in a solo show at La Familia Gallery during the month of May.

“A Walk in the Park” is meant to be a statement about Nature as Albers considers it to be “crowded out” with development. He wants people to notice that it is still very much here.

Albers says, “You miss contact with [nature] when you’re in a city, you can only see the sky when you look straight up.”

Albers surely brings Nature back into the city by way of bright, bold shapes and colors. For this exhibit, Albers applies nature to paint rather than the usual illustration of paint to nature. He succeeds in his efforts to recreate the natural world through the use of materials available to him. He works to create “an intimate, tactile relationship of inspection with the world.”

It hasn’t been easy. Every time I think I’ve found the perfect one it doesn’t work right, it makes us look confused or it simply doesn’t FEEL like La Familia. Skins have been tossed to the floor and over sofas as I search for what to wear to the global blog dance.

As of today I think I have found something I can work with. It isn’t to tight or to loose, not to many flashing things or extra gadgets but we still have some leverage to customize and have fun. We will see if it works.

If it doesn’t, please forgive us because there just doesn’t seem to be the virtual version of the little black dress.