The Art of Wooing

Author/Artist Kaz Brecher

I first came across Dan’s work in 1997 when my father shared a review from Time magazine.  The phrase “the journey is the destination” was well-worn in our family, and my father immediately saw a resonance between Dan’s work and story and my own leanings towards travel, humanitarian interests, and art.  So, I wrote to Kathy, just to let her know how profoundly her effort to gather Dan’s work and share it had touched me and how much I appreciated her bravery in letting the world into her loss.

She happened to be having a book launch in Los Angeles and invited me to join.  We met and chatted for only a little while, as Kathy artfully navigated the attention of so many supporters.  And, as I had recently moved to LA to pursue a career in film and visual arts, we stayed in touch for a short time and then drifted as life swept us in different directions.

Four years later, after a circuitous path through the film world and a thrilling but brief ride on the high-tech media rollercoaster, I had decided to put the severance I’d received towards a few months of finishing a proposal – a mixed media art and poetry book with a story told through email.  It had hand-carved stamps!  And vellum pages with hand-written poetry!  And just as I was starting the slog through learning the ropes of publishing, the phone rang.

Kathy had come across my letter, in a filing box, and wondered what had happened to me and my aspirations.  And, from that point on, it seemed Dan was somehow cheering me on from the sideline.  He and I share a birthday, similar heritage, and, as it turns out, a number of dear friends.  And getting to share the passionate support of his mother was instrumental to my finishing the book proposal.

Despite all of that, September 11th struck, and the publishing world wasn’t interested.  I had started work at a graphic design studio, and there I found the tools and friends who helped me decide to self-publish the book.  Almost ten years after I began the process, the book is finished and available online.  It centers around romantic communication and cross-cultural awareness.  And I hope that from wherever he is, Dan is proud of another work he has inspired.

Kaz Brecher currently lives in Los Angeles, despite having left her heart in San Francisco. When she’s not working in interactive media, plotting her film career, or dabbling in wooing experiments, she can be found hula hooping with friends or shopping for functional art and paper products. Her latest passion is the tribewanted.com project in Fiji, where an online community is helping to build a sustainable tourist community, and she hopes to make her first feature film sometime in the near future.”