Kevin Clark Deal

December 16, 1968 - July 25, 1995

Kevin was a prolific artist, he created images and songs from his heart. He was a creative and loving individual who loved nature most. He considered himself a defender of Mother Nature, through the films he made and the messages they projected.

He felt that in the industrial age there was no respect for nature. Through art he expressed his reverence for nature using film and music to tell his stories. His Buddhist and surrealistic influences spoke to his beliefs that art could show one to see things a new way.

At the time of his death, Kevin was working at completing a second Masters degree in Music from Mills College, and a new film called Symphonia de Sierra. He was collecting ambient sounds for his new film when he journeyed on July 24th to the back country of Mineral King in Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park. He brought no film or video equipment with him, only a DAT recorder.

Kevin spent his last night on earth at Franklin Lakes, at approx. 11,000 ft., this was to be the first stop of a week long hiking trip. He climbed up to Franklin Pass the next morning to continue his trip. A hiker claims to have seen someone matching Kevin's description on the Pass mid-morning on the 25th. Park rangers think that he had fallen down some 240 feet off Franklin Pass. He sustained severe traumatic injuries and did not survive the fall. It was 2 weeks later that his body was found by park rangers in the snowy remote area of Sequoia National Park.

Kevin is survived by his brother Chris and parents Paul and Joanna Deal. He was born in New Orleans, Louisiana and lived his last 9 years in the San Francisco Bay Area. Kevin was a BFA graduate from California College of Arts and Crafts and an MFA graduate from San Francisco Art Institute. He completed four films which are distributed by Canyon Cinema, Meditation IV (1989), Condemnation (1989), Symphonia de Erosus (1991), and Dream Cantata (1993).

We celebrate his short life through the remembrance of his times here in this world. The work he has left behind is but a mere imprint of his existence. Yet his images and music remain, and our memories of his life are what will always remain.

Larry Kless
December 16, 1995