• Project by : Julianne Weinmann
• Date : October 1, 2018

Project description

View this book on Shutterfly.com: Sunsets & Kisses

Sunsets & Kisses is an anniversary gift for my late husband, Gene, and it is a very personal creation. We were married on October 13, 1984.

The book contains photographs, poems and messages. I took the photographs at Nokomis and Venice beaches in Florida in the years since his passing, 2016-2018.

Shortly after Gene died in February, 2016, I began seeing X’s in the sky, which I suppose were the entrails of jet engine exhaust left by aircraft having crossed routes.  I saw them in New Jersey and again when I moved to Florida. The day of the first sighting, I was driving uphill toward our Great Meadows home, about to pass a farm market on my left. Suddenly, I experienced an uncanny and irresistible urge to pull over.  I didn’t need anything from the farm market and I had no intention to stop, but I obeyed my instinct and drove into the parking lot. Then, I heard a whisper in my mind.  It was a gentle tug at my attention and it was saying “look up.”  And there, stretched completely across the sky, was a very large and distinctive “X.” I could not help but be reminded of the kisses Gene used to write on greeting cards for me each and every holiday, birthday and anniversary and on the notes he left on the kitchen table when our daily activities separated us.

So I started photographing these X’s whenever I saw them in the sky.

The poetry just flowed from my mind and heart and a few are taken from my Poetry book, In a Nutshell, and from the book I wrote with my friend Vicki – Kitty-Kitty.  I also felt compelled to share a bit of Caily-Kitty with Gene for our anniversary.  They’ve never met.

Anyway, that’s the sum and gist of it all.