THE GIFT UNDONE
incomplete, unfinished, and unraveled
The Gift Undone is a newsprint style booklet about five incredibly talented artists portraying their gifts with a common link of living fast, and dying young and tragically around the age of 27. Each one of these artists, Jean Michel Basquiat, Amy Winehouse, Tupac Shakur, Alexander McQueen and Jimmy Hendrix all shared these things in common. However, I don't reveal it to you that this is there common thread until the end. I provide hints, for example on the cover I use gold foiling with just their birth dates to show that they were born shiny and new! Typography was used to describe their personalities and display their emotions. For example, Amy Winehouse was very passionate and her emotions went from one extreme to another, so her type sort of moves arounds.
All of the artists in this book are examples of creative minds that were truly undone by their own gifts and died just a little more every time they created and gave to the world. As artistic martyrs they have laid their own lives down, each knowing their time was coming soon and that death was near. But still continuing down the road of sudden end. However, as long as they could share their story and create a use of therapy, it was worth it. We the world watched and listened to the art in their anguish and their pain, as they relived it repeatedly so that we could heal through their craft. We adored the way they dug deeply into the depth of their truth to bring art to reality. Hopefully this book would help reflect on the link between creativity and suffering. And present the question, why do great artists live tormented lives?
