When we lose someone, we grieve not only their loss, but the future they will no longer have.

For many families the thought that their loved one's work could be forgotten is heartbreaking. Creative work carries a person's voice, imagination, and how they viewed the world. For those who loved them, it is a part of who they were, and that is irreplaceable.

And with that comes a painful question many families face:

What happens to everything they spent their lifetime creating?

Most of the time, it ends up in boxes or on old hard drives and is ultimately lost, often without anyone ever seeing it. I didn’t understand how painful that reality was until I lost my son.

My son, Ethan, struggled with addiction for over a decade, but what people didn’t know was that he wrote constantly. More than anything, he wanted to be a writer. A month before he passed, he had started writing a book about his life. He hoped that by sharing his story, he could prevent others from going down the same road he did.

But he never got a chance to finish that book.

After he died, I discovered his journals, song lyrics, and the first few chapters of his book. I was left with a haunting thought:

What if one day his words disappeared as if he had never existed?

After speaking with others, I realized I wasn’t alone. More families than I ever imagined were left with their loved ones’ creative works. Again and again, I heard the same question from grieving families: how do I keep my loved one’s work from being forgotten?

Artists like Julius Trombino, a gifted singer-songwriter whose life ended from a sudden overdose just days before his 23rd birthday. Julius left behind a remarkable catalog of songs and had already begun emerging in the music scene, even opening for the Jonas Brothers early in his career.

Or Angelique Benrahou, a talented young portrait artist whose work captured the depth of the human spirit. She also illustrated a children’s book written with her mother. Angelique struggled with bipolar disorder, and her artistic voice was only beginning to gain recognition when her life ended far too soon.

Losing Ethan made me realize how easily a person's creative voice can disappear. I created The Artist Lives so the work people leave behind can still be seen, heard, and remembered.

For those families who've lost someone to addiction, suicide, or AIDS, this is especially meaningful. Because when a life ends this way, the world often focuses on how they died, not how they lived and what they gave to the world. Preserving their creative work allows their families to ensure their loved one is remembered for their talent and who they were as a person.

But our work cannot continue without support.

Your donation helps us build and maintain the digital archive, work directly with families to document their loved one’s story, and ensure that the artwork, music, and writing they left behind are not lost.

And there is so much more we can do.

With the resources to grow, we can hold exhibitions that bring their work into the world, share their music on streaming platforms, and introduce their writing to publishers so it has the chance to reach new readers. Most importantly, we can give families the comfort of knowing the work their loved one devoted their life to creating will continue to be seen, heard, and remembered.

Because when an artist dies, what they created is how they continue to live on. No lifetime of creativity should disappear as if it meant nothing.

Today, The Artist Lives features more than 60 artists, preserving both their work and their stories.

Our goal is to reach 100 and continue building the first archive dedicated to artists the world never had the chance to discover.

With your support, we can ensure more voices are not lost. Every contribution helps move this work forward.

$10 - Help ensure a voice is not forgotten

$25 - Help preserve and share a creator's story

$50 - Help preserve a creator's work

$100 - Help create a permanent artist archive page

$250 - Help digitize and organize a creative collection

$500 - Help fully preserve one creator's legacy

Their Lives Ended Too Soon. Help Their Creative Voices Live On.

Creative work shouldn't disappear when someone dies. The Artist Lives preserves and showcases the art, music, and writing people leave behind so their creative voices can continue to be seen, heard, and remembered.