TheCemeteryClub.com is seeking ACEO (Art Cards Editions and Originals) or ATC (Artist Trading Cards) art by cemetery-inspired artists. ACEO or ATC art is 2.5 x 3.5 inches (trading card size). They're pocket-sized masterpieces!

If you would like to promote your art for pennies, donate an ATC print of your work (prints only; keep your originals) to TheCemeteryClub.com to be given away to a random winner (one per month or more often, depending on how many we get). Learn more about Artist Training Cards here.

Donated ATCs will be showcased on this website as well as on our Facebook group with information about each artist, including a link to the artist's website, Facebook page or contact information.

Donation/entry rules:

- The art must be original to the person submitting it.
- The art must be cemetery-related.
- Send only reproductions for the give-away. (Keep your originals)
- Email an electronic version for use on the site and Facebook group. You are encouraged to add a watermark to the electronic version.
- Include your contact information, website, Facebook page URL, etc. We want to be able to promote you!
- Your artwork is yours, and you will get full credit for it. We just want to promote artists and other inspired souls.
- You don't have to be the most skilled artist in the world--or even consider yourself an artist. ATCs are about expressing yourself through painting, drawing, collaging and general creativeness. Primitive/folk or outsider art is welcome.
- Deadline: First run of submissions must be post-marked by June 30, 2014.
- Email for mailing information: minda.epitaphsmag@gmail.com

The ACEO above was created by ebay user acatnamedfrank. I purchased the original a couple months ago. Love it!

How long have you been interested in cemeteries and why?
My interest in cemeteries started when I was a young child, I'm 34 this year. I cannot tell you why, but the stones with their chiseled names and dates always intrigued me. I would find myself wondering about the people buried beneath those very stones.  What their lives where like, what they did for a living and whether they knew their earthbound neighbours in life as well as death, how they died and who was left to mourn them.

What are your favorite cemeteries? (we all have more than one!) 
My three most favourite cemeteries are All Saints Maidenhead Cemetery in Maidenhead, Berkshiure UK, a large local cemetery dating from 1888 to the late 1970s, Bray Parish Cemetery in Holypory Berkshire UK, again dating from the 1880s. Bray Parish Cemetery is the small village cemetery that I first explored as a child and my obsession began and Holy Trinity Churchyard in Cookham Berkshire.  This churchyard has burials dating back to the mid 1700s and it one of the most beautiful and better maintained village churchyards I have ever been in. 

What are your favorite monuments?
There are two large monuments at All Saints Maidenhead Cemetery, one is the large Angel monument of the Finch family and the other is a large statue of a lady looking out over the cemetery. In Cookham my favourite monument is the Angel of Cookham, a famous monument in the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church that was subject of one of Sir Stanley Spencer's paintings. At Bray it's the large angel monument of the Wolff family that used to terrify me as a small child. I was convinced it was haunted and used to move when you weren't looking. 

What is the farthest you've traveled to visit a cemetery?
So far I haven't really travelled far out of my local area, this is due to me having young children, they of course come before my hobby.  The farthest I have been is All Saints Churchyard in Bisham Berkshire, but I plan to go much further afield when the children are older. 

What has been the most surprising thing you've seen in a cemetery?
Unfortunately the British seem to be a conservative bunch when it comes to burying the dead or leaving offerings. I have to say that the thing that surprised me the most was the wording on Vivian Charlotte Lewis's gravestone, 'Died in her racing car at Brighton speed Trials'. 

What do you tell people if they think your cemetery infatuation is weird?
They can think what they like, they'll soon end up in the cemetery somewhere and I'll be sure to take a picture of their gravestone when they do. 

What cemeteries are on your bucket list?
Most definitely the magnificent seven cemeteries of London, Kensal Green Cemetery, West Norwood Cemetery, Highgate Cemetery, Abney Park Cemetery, Nunhead Cemetery, Brompton Cemetery and Tower Hamlets Cemetery.

It's not the best quality, but the subject matter is good. I stopped by Davenport Memorial Park in Davenport, Iowa, today after work and on my way to meet my husband, kid and parents to see "Godzilla." (Opening night, whoo hooo!)

I wasn't sure whether my iPhone and YouTube would allow for me to record a video filmed "sideways" and post it in a watchable way. While worrying about that, I neglected to switch the photo setting to video. So I wandered around talking about stuff for nearly five minutes before I realized all I had done was take a couple pictures. And this is why I'm in charge of social media for my day job ...

Anyway, I recorded another one that actually did what I hoped it would do--and I turned on the recording. The result is a bit jerky (motion-wise, not me ... at least I hope not!) and not very smooth. For a spur-of-the-moment video, I guess it's okay. At least I did it.

I also took a pic of the tower in Davenport Memorial and will post that and a postcard image of it I discovered on ebay on my cemetery/postcard blog.
I hope you enjoy the video, for what it's worth. I hope to do more this spring and summer!

Best,
Minda

Cemetery: Oakdale Memorial Gardens (established in 1856 as Oakdale Cemetery)
Location: 2501 Eastern Avenue, Davenport, Iowa
Style: Rural/garden
Active or inactive: Active
Notable graves: Civil War generals; jazz cornetist Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke, education pioneer Phebe Sudlow; Count Nicholas Fejevary (Hungary); author Alice French (aka Octave Thanet); Dairy Queen founder John Fremont McCullough; members of the founding family of chiropractic and Palmer College of Chiropractic (Mabel Heath Palmer and David D. Palmer); founder of Grinnell College Julius Alexander Reed
Remarkable markers: Dillon monument (large obelisk); Soldiers Orphans Lot; more than a dozen private mausoleums; various mourning women; white bronze markers

What else you can do in town ...

What else to see: The Quad Cities consists of Davenport and Bettendorf in Iowa and Moline and Rock Island in Illinois. In Davenport, you can visit the Putnam Museum, Figge Art Museum and the River Music Experience. In Bettendorf, the Family Museum is a great time if you bring young children. In Moline, stop by the John Deere Pavilion (John Deere lived here and is buried here in Moline's Riverside Cemetery). In Rock Island, you try your luck at Jumer's Casino and Hotel. There are also riverboat casinos on the Iowa side. Just outside the Quad Cities, Niabi Zoo is located in Coal Valley, Ill.

Where to eat: Ross' Restaurant has been a local favorite for more than 50 years. It's located in Bettendorf at the base of the I-74 bridge. It's a diner with great food, and it's known for it's iconic Magic Mountain. Some famous patrons have included Bill Murray, Louie Bellson and Pearl Bailey, Bette Midler, Rachel Maddow (the owner and manager even appeared on "The Rachel Maddow Show" on MSNBC), and President Barak Obama.

For dessert, go to Lagamarcino's for the best handmade chocolates and old-fashioned soda fountain. The original store is in downtown Moline, and the second shop is in the East Village of Davenport. You also don't want to miss Whitey's Ice Cream. There are a number of stores throughout the Quad Cities. Whitey's is a QC original and has the best thick shakes and malts (known as "the best in the Midwest"). They have tons of gourmet and traditional scooped ice cream flavors, including Chocolate Peanut Butter Revel, Graham Central Station, Mississippi Mud Revel, Salted Caramel, Cup O' Joe Espresso, Strawberry Cheesecake and Coconut Joy.

There are a number of micro-breweries in the area, including Front Street, Blue Cat Brew Pub, Bent River,  Great River and more.

Safe travels!
Minda

It's my kind of anniversary. I've officially been a taphophile for 10 years.

Back when I started my website (in 2004), it was to have an online home base. I wanted a place where I could post my thoughts and have people connect with me. And it worked. I was in the middle of writing my book "Cemetery Walk," and it wouldn't have been possible if I hadn't been connected to the online taphophile community. It was much smaller then. People were still giving us super strange looks when we told people we loved going to cemeteries. A lot has changed.

I give a lot of credit to the genealogists. They helped take the creepy out of cemeteries. To an extent, the ghost hunting community has also made cemetery "haunting" cool by actually putting the creepy back in to the cemeteries.

Those who have followed me through the years know that I love cemeteries and sharing that love with others. This past February marked my fourth year of teaching a CommUniversity class on cemetery art and history. I've been speaking at or about cemeteries since 2005. I've traveled around the Midwest and even as far as the state of Georgia to share my passion about out finest outdoor museums. It's been a great journey, and I hope I'm still just at the beginning.

It's been 10 years since I started on this path. Ten years since I decided, "I want to write a book, and I want to write it about cemeteries." I wanted people to see cemeteries as important places filled with history and art rather than sadness or morbidness. I still do.

Within the past 10 years, I've written and published (self and otherwise) a number of books, become a speaker and workshop leader, and founded and edited a website that has grown through the years. My Facebook group keeps building and building. And while people don't necessarily know it's my group on FB, I'm still proud of how it keeps growing because that means more and more people are stepping into our cemeteries, cameras in hand. They are appreciating the beauty of the monuments and the fascinating history they offer us.

So thank you to all my taphophile friends. It has been a great pleasure getting to know so many awesome people from all over the world. Keep taking pictures and posting them. You're helping make the world a smaller place and letting us all take a peek into parts of the world we may never have seen otherwise.

Eternally yours,
Minda

Meet Jeane Trend-Hill, Headstone Hunter, Essex, England
(5/8/13)
How long have you been interested in cemeteries and why? My love of cemeteries began as a young child when I visited family member’s graves with my parents. Whilst the adults chatted and arranged flowers, I would wander off and look at all the angels, doves and crosses. I was struck by their beauty and as I got older I began photographing them purely for my own enjoyment. I have since gone on to set up the Silent Cities Project - I’ve produced a series of cemetery photography books, studied grave symbolism and Mortuary Science and I am also involved with monument restoration and preservation to help future generations enjoy an important part of our history and heritage.

What are your favorite cemeteries? (we all have more than one!) In no particular order - San Michelle in Venice, it’s an entire cemetery island. Pouble Nou in Barcelona Spain for the amazing ‘Kiss of death’ monument, which is a winged skeleton figure lifting a man for the final kiss goodbye. Highgate Cemetery London, beautifully gothic and romantic, Kensal Green Cemetery London for its array of different memorials, and I have just returned from Central Cemetery Zentralfriedhof Vienna Austria where all the composers like Mozart and Strauss are buried.

What are your favorite monuments? The Kiss of death as I mentioned, along with Mary the sleeping angel on a bed of clouds in Highgate and the resting place of an architect Arthur Beresford Pite in West Norwood Cemetery London, whose building I worked in for many years and I am currently involved in his grave restoration. I like all different sorts of things though, from a simple wooden cross that may have been hand carved with love, to something very elaborate and over the top. I prefer the older monuments (pre 1940), some of the more modern ones seem to be lacking in imagination. Stonemasonry is a lost art, hand carving from a single block of marble or granite and of course few people could afford anything like that now anyway. I also love Victorian catacombs and have been lucky enough to see a few not generally open to the public.

Where is the farthest you've traveled to visit a cemetery? I did a day trip to Barcelona once just to photograph a certain monument, but the furthest ... I have been to Australia twice in 1995 and 1996, but lost my cemetery photos from there due to a computer crash.

What has been the most surprising thing you've seen in a cemetery? The sad state of neglect in some of them, but more usually the things people leave behind. I’ve handed in cameras and phones, watched tiny fox cubs playing, seen rare birds (although I have had to have those pointed out to me), clothing (lets not go there!) and bones of course, although that’s not really surprising.

What do you tell people if they think your cemetery infatuation is weird?  I try to show them the beautiful side of cemeteries through my photographs. They are havens for wildlife, flowers and plants and of course the amazing architecture. There is so much history to be found too. I think people are coming round to it more nowadays, but of course there will always be the odd one who thinks I’m weird – that’s fine, there are a lot of us about!!

What cemeteries are on your bucket list? I’d like to get back to the USA one day and also see some of the cemeteries in Berlin and I haven’t finished with Italy yet. I keep on adding to the list!

Visit Jeane's website and Facebook Page.