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Release Of Souls Memorial

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Press Release San Diego Release Of Souls Concert & Memorial Ceremony
Press Release World Memorial

Beginning October 2001, over 700 ideas and sketches symbolizing the tragic 9-11 events were submitted to the WORLD MEMORIAL from around the globe. It is with great pleasure to endorse the Release of Souls (ROS) sculpture, created by Canadian artists Kathleen Tonnesen and Louis Louw. With help from the Vancouver community, the Release of Souls project was completed in record time for Fire-Rescue ceremonies September 11, 2003. The 18’ monolith had its International debut 7-14 November at The Seaforth Highlanders of Canada Armoury, 1650 Burrard Street, Vancouver. Honor Guards, 9-11 surviving family members, dignitaries, emergency service leaders, guest speakers and several thousand people attended the week long ceremonies. The opening event included a 2-hour live concert with Glenda Rae’s Darkest Night, Fiona Blackburn, 15th Field Artillery Regiment Band, Seaforth Highlanders Pipe Band and Miles Black’s ROS composition. Exhibits from local artist were also included; hosting Reflections by Fire Fighter Jim Nedelak. As a gift from Canadians to the American public, the ROS masterpiece will tour across North America enroute to a permanent resting place in New York City. For more information about the tour, call 1-604-463-9102. A CD-ROM, containing originals songs, multimedia tributes, submissions and Release of Souls, is available for a $20 US/CDN donation.

Sculpture and Paintings: What the Memorial gives people is somewhere they can place a wreath on the yearly date. The structure stands 16ft Square and 18ft high. Retaining the Survival Wall as testament to all the heroes of the day, who relentlessly searched for and saved lives, and to those who lost their own lives in the quest to save others. 343 Fire Fighters, Port Authority and NYPD names are engraved on the Sculpture. I know that their thoughts were not of themselves but simply of the job at hand, and in their hearts their motto might have been,” While I’m still standing , there are people to save”. Personally I like to call them ‘Ground Angels.’ The two paintings are symbolic of the Twin Towers, as shown on TV they just vaporized to nothing, hence the two Empty Metal spaces in front of the paintings. The two Empty Metal spaces are also indicative of the space where you expect to see your loved one in daily living, but no matter how hard you look the space remains empty. MEDIA CLIPS: Photography, Documentary and Media Release The Pentagon base is symbolic in its inclusion representing the tragic event of the day. The Sculpture embodies these events in the hope that it may encourage peace to all four corners of the earth, as people from everywhere went to work and were murdered. The structure is designed so that people can walk through the catastrophe, kneel and maybe by encompassing themselves in the unit, begin to heal. Everybody exudes Light and Colour and when a person dies people soon forget what they physically looked like, but they never forget how a person smelt, the sound of their laughter, the Light and Colour that the person brought to their lives. We live within our flesh, therefore when we die we are released from our flesh, hence the name Release of Souls. Although depicting the reality of the event, the paintings focus not on the blackness of the day, but ask you to close your eyes and visualize thousands of Souls all at once breaking free and filling the sky with colour, Soul Lights. What an incredible spectacle of Light you would see. Due to my belief, the paintings are bright in colour and I pray help at least someone heal. Some elements in the paintings have obvious meanings, but the entire piece is open for interpretation as to how it touches, speaks to, the people who will find comfort, hope and healing, when they encompass themselves in the unit, for them it will be entirely personal.