Editor's Notes

Note from the Editor | Nov. 24, 2011

Nick Meyer |

Kris Martin
 
Kris Martin

A good friend of Volume One, and a former artistic mover and shaker in Eau Claire, died last week at the young age of 33 in a terrible car accident in Seattle. While sitting in their vehicle at a stoplight, Kris Martin and his long-time girlfriend Laura, were struck from behind by an SUV traveling 80 miles an hour – and both were killed in the fiery result. As a personal friend of a couple of us at Volume One, and as a former contributor to the magazine, we were very saddened by this news. Even if you didn’t know Kris personally, you very well might have known his work. Kris was one of the creators of what I still consider to be one of the coolest art projects in Eau Claire in recent years – Bringing Art to Light (photos). This was the project that brought dozens of huge projected street art-inspired images to the sides of downtown buildings for a full month in 2005. It was an ambitious and well-coordinated community project. He was also the director of the locally produced film “Fares,” an original (and quite good) comedy that saw the first-ever full-on collaboration of the art, theater, and music departments at UW-Eau Claire. I was lucky enough to work with Kris and make the behind-the-scenes documentary about its production (which I’ve now posted to Volume One’s YouTube account, Kris is the tall one in glasses). Originally from our neck of the woods here in Wisconsin, he went on to work on documentary films while based in Denver, and later to Seattle where he continued work in the video field. Kris was a talented filmmaker, photographer, musician, and a genuinely inspired and creative friend. He will be missed.