Obituary


    Early on April 1, SAIC student Maria Volpert - a bright, loving woman with a great talent for art - passed away.
    She was many things to me, my best friend, the love of my life, and my fiancée of the last four years. I met her in my first days at SAIC. Her bright brown eyes caught me then and I was never far from her side from that day on.
    One of her talents was making friends. She could start a conversation on the street with anyone and, to my astonishment, even make friends on an el train. That easy laugh and "I know a secret" smile could melt even the stoniest of faces. Her other great passions were painting and the written word. Not only could she not pass up a book, she wrote many short stories as colorful and interesting as her paintings. Her stories could be dark and gritty, or biting and fanciful, as she herself could be a dichotomy.
    Maria was born in Moscow, Russia on March 22, 1979. She and her family came to Chicago in the mid-'90s. Maria graduated from New Trier High School in Wilmette with many merit awards. She entered The School of the Art Institute in the fall of 1997, as a Painting and Drawing major. Though she did not get to show many places, some of you may have seen her work displayed on Thursday nights at the Cliff Dwellers Club, where she read Tarot and helped me tend bar.
    Since her death I have met many people that I did not even know knew her. I am not sure whom I feel worse for, the people who never got a chance to know her, or the people who knew her and will miss her always. I know that I have not said enough about Maria to do her justice or to cover the feelings of her friends and family. There are not enough words to describe Maria ... for me she was, and always will be, my Pussycat.
            - Kurt Lashbrook