Fortieth Connection: to exist, to live, to be

The two cursive Rs in this small artists’ book, Are, part of my series Vocabulary Books, were inspired by a rhinestone studded broach owned by my Grandma Rose. I was thinking about how the name of the letter R – her first initial, sounds the same as the word are, in 1986 after her death. Are, an ordinary word that we use all the time without much thought and yet it has an important elemental meaning- to exist, to live, to be.