SARASOTA — Peace and history will coincide Saturday as local artist Sean Colson releases a limited edition digital creation “The Book of Peace; How to say Peace in 50 countries” at an event hosted from 4 to 7 p.m. at his family’s iconic home on Hillview Avenue in Sarasota.
The book, which offers the word for peace as spoken in the 50 most populous countries in the world, has a limited edition self-published run of about 100 at $20 each, including tax.
He’s also working on a digital version that would be available for 99 cents — currently though colsoncreations.com but eventually through saypeacein50countries.com — and an app.
Colson typically creates bronze castings and concrete sculptures but he’s also passionate about illustrations. It took about a year-and-a-half, off-and-on, to create the book. The process included learning a new skill — Photoshop.
The Book of Peace is a followup to “The Book of Love,” which he created in 2010 along with his wife, Marina, and was inspired by their own love story.
Researching the many ways to say peace took months of cross-referencing internet sources and figuring out English spelling for Chinese, Japanese and Russian words that use different alphabets.
“That’s why there’s a note there — if you find a translation error, let me know,” Colson said.
“I tried to make things that look unique but still are readable in English,” he added.
The South Venice resident decided to host the release and book signing at the house where he grew up, a three-structure compound that served as the studio for his father, the late Frank Colson, who worked in bronze, clay and fabric.
Frank and Diana Colson purchased the property in 1963, but the site’s history stretches farther back, since it was built by watercolor artist Hilton Leech in 1940. Leech operated his Amagansett Art School there.
Last year, Diana Colson put the family home on the market but later changed her mind and currently lives there with her eldest son, Kevin.
Sean Colson plans to open a gallery there and host monthly gatherings featuring his art and his father’s, as well as pieces from guest artists.
“I want to get the groove back in the Colsons here,” he said. “I want to attract people and let people know things are happening here. This is the start of season; this is the first event.
“Maybe next month we’ll figure out some other feature and get another artist and make something unique and do it, probably, through April.”
In case you're wondering, the word peace in Chinese translates as “heping.”
The word for peace that comes up the most among the 50 most populous countries is paz (Spanish), which occurs nine times.
“In several of these countries there’s several different languages. I tried to choose the primary language of the country,” Colson said.
Each word is accompanied by his artistic rendition of that country’s flag.
While Colson could envision a digital slideshow of his book on display in classrooms or even airports, he doesn’t expect to make a lot of money off of the book. He said he’s more interest spreading the message.
“It’s a positive message; it’s something that’s completely different,” Colson said. “It’s out of the box — like most of the things I grew up with.”