Let me give you the background information about my wife and why we have developed the Christa Ballew-Matthews Memorial Fund For The Arts.

My wife passed away on September 18, 2006 from complications due to Inflammatory Breast Cancer. She was 36 years old. She left behind myself and three children. She is missed greatly.

As an artist, Christa worked in many different mediums. At Stanford University, between her junior and senior years of high school, she studied painting. She preferred using watercolor although she had also ventured into acrylics and oils. Photography was her other two dimensional outlet.

In three dimensional work she enjoyed pottery and sculpting. Her last big adventure was sculpting bronzes. She had also hoped someday to get a commission for a large instillation. Her sculpting instructor, James Calvin, at The University of Missouri has offered to help me finish several more bronzes of hers including a bust that she did of herself.

Christa lived and breathed art. When our first child was ready to enter kindergarten she had her transferred to Lee Expressive Arts School. Lee is a kindergarten through fifth grade magnet school specializing in teaching students using an arts based curriculum. She believed that it took an understanding and appreciation of art to make the core subjects of reading, writing, and arithmetic come alive. All three of our children will attend Lee because the teachers and staff hold the Arts in such high esteem.

One of the memorial projects I have in mind would allow the school to finish a large installation, created by the children, that Columbia School Board has not been able to finance. It is our hope to complete this project and install a plaque in her memory.

More details will be forthcoming including about this Memorial Project and a new total for the Memorial Fund For The Arts. Thanks for taking the time to read about my wife and this project.

Peace and Good Cheers,
Marty