A digital exhibition of artworks inspired by Hungry Ghosts, the latest book in Peggy Blair's acclaimed Inspector Ramirez mystery series. The series is published by Simon and Schuster Canada and Penguin, as well as internationally. The physical exhibition will be on display at Cake and Shake in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada's capital, throughout the entire month of June 2015

1. HUNGRY
GHOSTS
ART EXHIBITION
AN EXHIBITION OF ARTWORKS
INSPIRED BY PEGGY BLAIR’S LATEST
NOVEL

2. Inspector Ricardo Ramirez investigates a string of dead prostitutes from Cuba to
Canada in this carefully constructed mystery from award-winning author Peggy
Blair.
Murders always multiply when there’s a full moon, Inspector Ricardo Ramirez
knows. As he’s investigating a vandal in the art world, a ghost appears by
Ramirez’s side…a sure sign that another murder victim is on the way. Ramirez’s
fears are confirmed when a dead prostitute is found in Havana with nylons
wrapped tightly around her neck, an MO that connects to his only cold case.
When another woman’s body is discovered in a similar condition on a First Nation
reserve in Northern Ontario, Detective Charlie Pike struggles to determine whether
the murder is a standalone crime or if the Highway Strangler has struck again.
Before long, both detectives find themselves tracking a killer whose reach extends
further than they could have imagined. As the pressure mounts, Inspector Ramirez
has to piece together the clues and track down an international serial killer before
his government silences him.
Hungry Ghosts

3. Hungry Ghosts Art Exhibition
I had always wanted to write a book about an art heist, which is
part of the plot of Hungry Ghosts. But I also had a rather fanciful
idea: an art exhibition inspired by the book.
Thanks to the efforts of Ottawa artist Sharon VanStarkenburg and
Sharon Louden, the Senior Critic for the New York Academy of Art,
seventeen incredibly talented artists from Ontario and the U.S.
volunteered to read Hungry Ghosts and create a piece of art. As
it turned out, some created more than one. You’ll be as amazed
by their brilliance as I am by their generosity.
The exhibition will run during June, 2015 at Cake and Shake, a
bakeshop/gallery in Hintonburg, in the heart of the Ottawa arts
district. A huge shout out to Michael Holland, the owner, for
offering to host it.
~ Peggy Blair

4. Ola Aldous
Ola Aldous was born in Ukraine and
moved to the US as a child. She received
her BM in piano performance from
Crane School of Music in 2005, and her
BFA in visual art concentration in painting
from SUNY Potsdam in 2013. Her recent
awards include:
• 2014-First Place in 43rd Annual Juried
Art Exhibition in Lebanon PA
• 2014-First and Third Place in 14th
Annual Juried Art Show Sackets
Harbor NY
• 2014-Best in Show in Juried
Landscape Show, Lancaster PA.
http://www.artslant.com/global/artists/show/318179-
ola-aldous

5. OLA ALDOUS
Title: Long Awaiting
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: 50"x52"
Price: $8,500 CAD

6. Inspiration
"Combining the narrative of the book with the process of letting the
painting evolve on its own brought focus to the two prostitutes,
Antifona and LaNeva Otero, whose lives ended in brutal murders.
"I wanted to preserve the beauty and the passion of these young
women whose devastating circumstances led to their loss of life. In
the painting, the two sisters merge into one as the life force falls off of
their animal-like bodies similar to the way flowers lose their petals.
"The painting reveals their strength as they search for justice and yet
continue to mourn their own deaths."
~ Ola Aldous

7. Joan Boswell
Several years after she completed a PhD
in history at the University of Ottawa, Joan
Boswell returned to the university and
completed the course work for a BFA in
studio. She has participated in many
group shows and had ten single shows as
well as four posters produced by Posters
International.
While continuing to paint, she
experimented with fiction writing. She
contributed to all seven Ladies’ Killing
Circle anthologies and has had four
mystery novels published.
http://joanboswell.ca/aboutauthor

8. JOAN BOSWELL
Title: Hungry Ghosts I
Medium: Ink and watercolour
Dimensions: 12¾"x 8¾"
Not for sale

9. JOAN BOSWELL
Title: Hungry Ghosts II
Medium: ink and watercolour
Dimensions: 12"x 8¼"
Not for sale.

10. Inspiration
"Inspired by the thought of the hungry ghosts lurking about
ready to give advice, I saw them as beings tangled in the
swirls of mist as they struggled to free themselves and deliver
their advice."
~Joan Boswell

11. Charis Carmichael Braun
Charis Carmichael Braun grew up in New Ulm,
MN. After an exchange year in Switzerland, she
earned her BA from Bethany Lutheran
College and her MFA from the New York
Academy of Art.
Charis‘s artwork is bound to themes about
vulnerability, projection and reconciliation,
drawing from her faith and familial
relationships. Her work has been exhibited
nationally and internationally and may be
found in both private and public collections.
Charis lives and works in New York.
http://www.charisjcarmichaelbraun.com/

12. CHARIS CARMICHAEL BRAUN
Title: Where Do We Go From
Here [Janus]
Medium: acrylic on board
Dimensions: 11"x 8½"
Price: $775 USD

13. Inspiration
"The relationship between the two victims in Hungry Ghosts intrigued me:
they were so very different – separated by thousands of miles, opposite
socioeconomic statuses, dissimilar experiences - yet bound by a connecting
thread … I kept seeing these two women victims together in the same image
and I anticipated pulling more threads of similarity to bind them together as I
read further into the book….
"I was reminded of the mythical two-headed Roman god, Janus. When I was
in Rome so very long ago, I saw a statue of Janus that looked like me - it had
my profile(s)! So I quietly filed the sculpture in the back of my mind, hoping to
bring it out in the future. It has since lingered, tapping a constant reminder,
much like Inspector Ramirez’ ghosts… so for this project, I am pulling that idea
and invoking the concept of the dissimilar women of Hungry Ghosts in an
image fitting into my current series, ‘Sit with Me, Stay With Me.’"
~ Charis Carmichael Braun

14. Dorothy Cochran
Dorothy is a well-known New York area printmaker,
acknowledged for her broad command of multiple
print methods
A two-time recipient of a NJ State Council on the
Arts fellowship. Dorothy taught at Columbia
University, City University of New York, Manhattan
Graphics Center and is a faculty member at The
Montclair Art Museum.
Dorothy has an MFA from Columbia University and
an MA, BA from Montclair State University.
www.dorothycochran.com

15. DOROTHY COCHRAN
Title: Consequences of Emotion
Medium: Encaustic Collagraph
Size: 15"x 22½"
Price: $450 USD

16. Inspiration
"Emotions in Hungry Ghosts by Peggy Blair ricocheted at a
feverish pace from Canada to Cuba. My print ‘Consequences of
Emotion’ responded to the change of visual environment, snow
juxtaposed to heat, to the disturbing back stories of the major
characters, and the layers of their complicated histories.
"The colours and energy of the gestures of my work express the
fast pace of these interconnected stories."
~ Dorothy Cochran

17. Patricia Dusman
Patricia Dusman is an award winning artist
originally from New York City, now residing
in Doylestown, PA. She studied printmaking
and photography at Bard College. She has
participated in art fairs and group shows
and been published in international artist
publications and exhibition catalogues.
Patricia recently received an award for her
painting "Stormy" at the 85th Annual Phillips
Mill Art Exhibition, New Hope, PA. Her work
can be found in private collections
throughout the US.
www.patriciadusman.com

18. PATRICIA DUSMAN
Title: Hidden Ghosts
Dimensions: 24" x 24"
Medium: Encaustic on panel
Price: $1,600 USD

19. Inspiration
"While reading Peggy Blair's Hungry Ghosts, I was drawn to the rich
description of the scenes set in Cuba, the sites, sounds, and energy. I was
imagining the vibrant colors of the setting including smears of red
representing both lipstick and murder.
"Part of my process is to imbed the written word into the layers and surfaces
of my paintings. I inscribed a few selected passages from the book into the
painting in order to further connect the visual with the story. Some of the
text can be seen and the rest is buried in the depths. The center of the
piece draws you in while the edges are veiled by wisps of translucent color,
the ghosts, as if they were hovering around watching."
~ Patricia Dusman

20. Ron Goodlin
Ron Goodlin is a renowned photographer and
winner of many international awards
He has had numerous juried, one man, and group
shows including the Toronto Outdoor Art Exhibition,
Toronto Image Works, an across Canada tour of
the Vistek Galleries, and has an upcoming show at
the Aurora Cultural Center.
Ron has had several photos featured on the
National Geographic website and was recently
awarded the Stuart Freedman Trophy as
Photographer of the year for the GTCCC.
www.rgphotoart.com

21. RON GOODLIN
Title: Orchestrating the Inspector
Medium: original photographic
print*
Dimensions: 19"x 27" framed
Price: $155 CDN ($30 will be donated to the Princess Margaret Foundation
for Cancer Research)
*Hand printed, matted and framed by the artist on archival acid and lignin free pH buffered
finer based archival paper

22. Inspiration
"The inspiration for this combined image of a ghostly figure magically playing the
cello is a representation of the overall theme of the book series. (Note how the
bow is running across the strings with the mere direction from the hand of the
ghost, in the same way the ghosts are trying to direct Inspector Ramirez through
their own hand gestures and body language to help him solve their own murders
as he orchestrates the investigations) …
"This landscape is akin to the native reserves on the shores of Long Reach as it
empties into Lake Ontario, home of the Tyendinaga Mohawk band. (It is also quite
similar to the Michipicoten reserve near Wawa, Ontario.)" ~ Ron Goodlin

23. Linda Lyons
Linda Lyons attended Boston University on a full
scholarship as a painting major. Her earliest
memories are of drawing as a youngster at the
beach of her native Marblehead.
In 1996, she was accepted into the Yale School
of Art's Summer Graduate Program in Design in
Brissago, Switzerland.
She applied to the Masters Program at WCSU for
an MFA in painting, where she met and was
influenced by William Bailey and Stanley Lewis. In
addition to recently completing graduate school,
she has had two large solo shows in Darien, CT
and has shown with the Blue Mountain Gallery in
Chelsea, NYC.
http://westconnartviews.blogspot.ca/2012/09/linda-
lyons-rynkowski-mfa-11.html

24. LINDA LYONS
Title: 75
Medium: Oil on panel
Dimensions: 12" x 12"
Price: $2,250 CAD

25. Inspiration
"Above the paintings, the intruder had sprayed the number 75….
"This whole thing reminds me of Guernica," said Gatti.
"Guernica?" asked Ramirez.
"It’s a painting by Picasso. The most famous anti-war painting in the
world. It was in the Museum of Modern Art in New York in the 1970s
when someone sprayed it with red paint."
Excerpt from Hungry Ghosts
~ Linda Lyons

26. Benjamin Martins
Benjamin Martins produces delicate, small- to mid-
scale watercolor paintings of ghostly images of
children, resonant with references to the inexorable
passage of time and the generations. He culls his
subjects from old photographs, mostly dating from
the 1940s and ’50s, transforming them into the
sketchily rendered, partially formed figures, which
seem to emerge out of his saturated brushstrokes.
For Martins, children represent the fleetingness of
life. He sees them as replacements for adults, living
proof that we are all advancing toward the
inevitable end of our existence.
New York Academy of Arts, MFA 2011
University of Massachusetts, BFA 2008
www.benjaminmartins.com

27. BENJAMIN MARTINS
Title: First Ghost
Medium: Watercolor on Paper
mounted on panel
Dimensions: 10" x 10"
Price: $600 CAD

28. BENJAMIN MARTINS
Title: Second Sight
Medium: Watercolor on Paper
mounted on panel
Dimensions: 10"x 10"
Price: $600 CAD

29. Inspiration
"My images were inspired by the idea of the after image left behind
after a violent death, in the form of second sight, visions, and
apparitions."
~ Benjamin Martins

30. Apryl Miller
Apryl Miller is a visual artist who produces
personal, intimate work which speaks of our
universal state of imperfection and how it
binds us together. Her work resides at the
intersection of joy and sorrow.
Apryl has been profiled in Hyperallergic,
Salon.com, Milk Made of Milk Studios, the
Saks Fifth Ave. Blog, E-ratio Poetry Magazine,
Konstvarlden. Her work has been showcased
on MTV and HGTV. She has collaborated
with Zoe Kravitz, Saks Fifth Ave, Working
Mother, Lee Jeans and Glamour Magazine
A popular lecturer, she is a graduate of FIT
and resides in NYC. www.aprylmiller.com

31. APRYL MILLER
Title: Crows and Peligrosos
Medium: Mixed Media
Dimensions: 30"x 24“x2”
Price: $2,500 USD

32. Inspiration
"In reading this great mystery story, I was struck by a sense of haunting loss. It
resonates beyond the murders portrayed, of women in Cuba and indigenous
women of Canada, to permeate generation after generation.
"The disposable women are merely by-products of the forced erosion of once
abundant societies, with economies now held together with a maze of staples
and paper clips.
"My painting, with the addition of language and 3-D objects, speaks to the
decay, through ignorance and hubris, of cultures that were once rich and self
sustaining. Hungry Ghosts is a must read, it’s a page turner. Like my painting,
there’s so much more than meets the eye."
~ Apryl Miller

33. Zaneta Pernicova
Zaneta Pernicova was born in the Bohemian
region of Czech Republic in 1979. Her family
emigrated to Austria during the end of the
Cold war, then moved to Canada in the early
1990s.
Zaneta's career as an artist is in its eleventh
year of prolific creativity and painting. Her
medium of choice has become oil paint, gold
and resin with the use of some collage.
Zaneta currently resides in Wakefield, Quebec
www.zanetapernicova.ca

34. ZANETA PERNICOVA
Title: Omens (Chapter 10)
Medium: Oil on gallery canvas
Dimensions: 12" x 12"
Price: $200 CAD

35. Inspiration
"Pike pulled the sheets aside, shaking the dream from his head.
Snarling dogs fought while a fox watched quietly. He envisaged his
mishomis frowning at the bad omens. His grandfather, a trapper, had
relied on signs like these to get him through winter safely. It worked
pretty well, until the waters of Manomin Bay dragged him back to
the Creator."
Excerpt from Hungry Ghosts
~ Zaneta Pernicova

36. Lauren Amalia Redding
Lauren Amalia Redding lives and works in
Astoria, Queens, New York. She received her
B.A. from Northwestern University in Evanston,
Illinois and her M.F.A. from the New York
Academy of Art.
Lauren has exhibited from Tokyo to Chicago
and New York—including a solo show at
Chicago’s renowned Palette and Chisel
Academy of Fine Arts in 2008.
She has been featured as one of "Today’s
Masters: Artists Making Their Mark" by Fine Art
Connoisseur magazine, and in October 2015,
will be an artist-in-residence at the Florence
School of Fine Arts in Florence, Italy.
www.laurenredding.com

37. LAUREN AMALIA
REDDING
Title: Prima Verrier
Medium: Silverpoint on gessoed
and torn Bristol paper
Dimensions: 10" x 8" unframed
Price: $400 CAD (approx. $320
USD)

38. Inspiration
"My mother’s family emigrated from Cuba in 1968... Acute pain and tragedy seem
to be requisites for Cubans leaving the island. In Cuba, there’s a lot of irony: the
human rights abuses of its totalitarian, Marxist dictatorship necessitate humans to
further abuse their own well-being—both mentally and physically—to escape.
"Abuela (my grandmother) tells me that I have a couple of cousins who work as
jineteras in La Habana, but the details are murky, because no one wants to admit
that. ... Reading Hungry Ghosts proved almost uncomfortable for me, imagining
family members I’ve never met as victims Prima Verrier, LaNeva Otero, and Antifona
Conejo."
~ Lauren Amalia Redding

39. Title: LaNeva Otero
Medium: Silverpoint on gessoed and
torn Bristol paper
Dimensions: 10" x 8"
Price: $400 CAD (approx. $320 USD)
LAUREN AMALIA
REDDING

40. Inspiration
"I chose the three jinetera victims for simple, straightforward portraits. Whereas I
usually work from photographs or models, I drew the three faces from my
imagination. I wanted to add lines around the eyes of otherwise young, beautiful
women. I wanted to render faces in a way that ennobled them.
"I drew them without garish makeup, without hair done, bare, completely nude—
firmly nude and not naked, not crude or vulgar—and vulnerable. I wanted to
draw them as their most organic selves, as young women alert and distrusting
and unsure and guilty. I wanted to portray them as Magdalenes as opposed to
simply prostitutes."
~ Lauren Amalia Redding

41. LAUREN AMALIA
REDDING
Title: Antifona Conejo
Medium: Silverpoint on gessoed Bristol
paper
Dimensions: 10"x 8"
Price: $400 CAD (approx. $320 USD)

42. Inspiration
"My medium is all too fitting for this task. I draw in the anachronistic, pre-
Renaissance medium of silverpoint, which means that rather than draw with
graphite or charcoal, I draw with a piece of silver wire in a stylus, making delicate,
non-erasable lines out of precious metal.
"Like any spoon or piece of jewelry, the drawing itself tarnishes over time. It is in a
state of constant evolution, a poetic concept when coupled with the fact that
the drawing is highly reflective, ephemerally shifting in myriad light. In places, the
paper is ripped, the rendering unfinished. Memory and the fleeting narrative of life
are evoked and echoed in the silverpoint’s tremendous capacity for transience.
"In turn, that serves as a sorrowfully adept metaphor for the transience of the lives
of the three jineteras I drew."
~ Lauren Amalia Redding

43. René Rivard
René Rivard was born in Northern Québec
but has lived in both Québec and
Ontario. After teaching a few years, he
went to study art at the École des beaux
arts de Montréal.
He paints for himself and has seldom
exhibited. His rent-paying job has been
mostly involved working in the field of
mental health and deafness.
He hopes to communicate through his art
as one would want to do in sign
language, through structure, colour, and
composition. http://renerivard.com

44. RENÉ RIVARD
Title: Resting Place
Medium: Acrylic on canvas
Dimensions: 30"x 40"
Price: $1,200 CAD

45. Inspiration
"The painting which I entitled Resting Place was inspired by two passages in the
book. One is before the very beginning of the book (the prologue) and mentions
a hare sitting under a pine tree with branches bending under the weight of the
snow. You can’t see the hare in the painting (white on white).
"The other is at the end of the book when Charlie Pike visits the burial site of his
father: ‘The way the dark water gleamed, it almost looked like mercury.’"
~ René Rivard

46. Franciscus
van Boxtel
Franciscus van Boxtel is a native of the Netherlands, living
in Canada since 1977, on farms, in small towns, and in
cities, currently residing in the Aylmer sector of Gatineau.
A lifelong artist, Frank has been painting in acrylic on
canvas for the last 14 years. His main subject matter over
that time has been pet portraits on a commission basis, as
well as some portraits of people.
His work can be found in Canada, the US, Europe, and
Australia. Frank's love of animals equals his love of art.
Frank and his partner currently live with two parrots, a cat,
two dogs, as well as the occasional rescued foster dog.
http://www.franciscus.ca/gallery.html

47. FRANCISCUS VAN BOXTEL
Title: Murder
Dimensions: 36" x 18"
Medium: Acrylic on gallery wrapped
canvas
Price: $500 CAD, of which Frank will
donate 20% to his local women's
shelter.

48. Inspiration
"My painting ‘Murder,’ was inspired by the scene in the book in which Pauley
Oshig said it was the crows who showed him where the murder victim's body
was. Though often misunderstood and associated with death, I'm fond of the
species as they are intelligent and playful, and beautiful in their shiny
blackness."
~ Franciscus van Boxtel

49. Sharon VanStarkenburg
Sharon VanStarkenburg was born in
Pembroke, ON. She earned her B.F.A. from
the University of Ottawa in 1997 and upon
graduation received the First Place Visual
Arts Prize. She received a City of Ottawa
Professional Artist Funding grant in 2006 and
an exhibition grant from The Ontario Arts
Council in 2015. In 2007 studied at New York
University, working toward a M.A. Studio
Degree. She has exhibited internationally
and is included in numerous collections.
She is currently represented by Wall Space
Gallery in Ottawa, Ontario where she also
resides and works.
http://sharonvanstarkenburg.artspan.com/

50. SHARON
VANSTARKENBURG
Title: Every Contact Leaves A
Trace
Medium: oil on wood panel
Dimensions: 16" x 20"
Price: $950 CAD

51. Inspiration
"The elements that I drew on for these pieces from the novel were themes of
communication, or lack thereof; vulnerability and strength; otherworldliness and the
visceral; signs; and omens. The ghosts were mute, yet tried to gesture and convey
meaning and there was also reference to communication with crows.
"For me the crows refer to both death (carrion) and the spirit world. In these pieces
there are floating hands making shadow birds, also a mute form of
communication. The hands are also done in a more illustrative style, as if from a
guide on communicating with shadows. In this painting, the crow actually emerges
from the woman's mouth, as if it has stolen her voice. She stares out at the viewer."
~ Sharon VanStarkenburg

52. SHARON
VANSTARKENBURG
Title: The Exchange Principle
Medium: oil on wood panel
Dimensions: 16" x 20"
Price: $950 CAD

53. Inspiration
"In The Exchange Principle, the woman is drawing back on a bow, casting a blurry
shadow as she is in movement. In this painting one crow clamps its beak down on
the neck of another.
"There is a sense of malevolence and foreboding in both paintings. I wanted both
figures to be both self possessed and vulnerable, as the murdered women in the
novel would have been."
~ Sharon VanStarkenburg

54. Pamela Winegard
Pamela Winegard is a mixed media artist and
art educator. She is an Arts & Science Council
CSA 2014 Artist. She was a 2012 Artist-In-
Residence at the McColl Center for Visual Art &
Innovation. She received both a fellowship and
a grant to attend artist residencies at the
Vermont Studio Center 2012-2014.
Pamela has been in international, national, and
regional juried exhibitions and has been
awarded several exhibition honors including
Best of Show and First Place awards.
She has had a number of significant solo shows
and group shows including at the Mint Museum
of Art and upcoming at the Spartanburg Art
Museum. www.pamelawinegard.com

55. PAMELA WINEGARD
Title: Transitions
Medium: Encaustic, mixed media, and
graphite drawing on paper mounted on
stretched canvas
Size: 20”x15”
Price: TBD

56. Inspiration
"I really enjoyed the layers of connections to the past, present, and in some
cases the future, in the storyline. The weaving of ubiquitous myth and
iconography between cultures and geographies tied the communities
together in ways that reflected back on the characters enriching the
traditions and story. Those vibrant images resonated with my own visual
narratives and inspired ‘Transitions’."
~ Pam Winegard

57. Thanks and appreciation!
As always, I am indebted to Simon and
Schuster for their incredible support.
Thanks also to Lorraine Glendenning for
putting this digital exhibition together; I
hope you all enjoyed it!
And to all these remarkable artists, I love
you all--thank you so much!
~ Peggy Blair

58. Exhibition Venue
The physical exhibition will run during the entire
month of June, 2015 at Cake and Shake, a
bakeshop/gallery in Hintonburg in the heart of the
Ottawa arts district.
As well as all the works from the digital exhibition,
there will be additional pieces by Ottawa artists
Natasha Beaudin and Dominique (Mique Michelle)
Boisvenue.
Huge thanks to Michael Holland for hosting this
remarkable collaboration!

59. Holland’s Cake And Shake
Holland's Cake and Shake is a new arrival to
Ottawa’s Hintonburg arts district.
Michael Holland (or @Pastry Overlord, as he's
known on Twitter) has been a pastry chef for over
twenty years, but he honed his skills helping his
grandfather make bread and baked goods as a
young child. Originally from Toronto, he has
worked across the country with top chefs including
Marc Lepine of Atelier in Ottawa and Michele
Mercuri of Hotel St. James in Montreal. He is known
for his original and inventive approach to desserts,
both sweet and savory.
He also makes killer sandwiches, perfect for the
launch of a new mystery novel!
www.cakeandshake.ca

60. Directions to Holland’s Cake and Shake