Angels

I forget exactly how I decided to take pictures of people wearing angel wings. It had to do w/ Patty Curran’s friend George who is a wonderful artist. He and I had become friends when he was part of my “Forty Ways to Fight the War Against AIDS” project. He was number 00 and represented making a quilt.

At the time, there in the middle of the AIDS epidemic,George was obsessed w/ angels. He found the angel wings for rent in Arlington. We both found the people. It was Isaac’s idea to use a sky blue background.

It was 19????.

One of the portraits is of my friend Karen Schmeer. She kept the portrait in her Cambridge apt in Inman Square. Hanging on the wall in the midst of her colorful mosaic of favorite things. Karen was beloved by her friends in Cambridge, New York, L.A, Portland.She had friends in all these cities because she was a hugely talented film editor.

Everyone who knew her settled in Karen’s web. Tragically, she was killed by a speeding car on …….. She had left an Upper West Side, NYC, market after a Saturday editing the movie…………………… She had just bought supper and some nonessentials and was crossing the street.

The car that killed her was speeding away from the police. The driver and friend had shoplifted medications from the local CVS. It was just three weeks before her fortieth birthday, an occasion she dreaded. She and her girlfriends were making elaborate plans to celebrate.

Her memorial service at the Coolide Corner Theater, w/ her favorite goodies and popcorn was all about her friends love of her and their shock at what had happened to her so abruptly. Everyone still had “be w/ Karen” written in their daybooks. It was so accidental. It wasnt supposed to happen.

Her memorial booklet included her angel portrait and her best recipes. . And i made an angel print for each of her friends.

Much later I made a postcard of the angel portrait of Harvey and Isaac. It had been the last piece of positive on the roll in the camera. It was definitely a gift from the camera gods.