Essence of All Before Us: The Life of Genevieve Burnett is a biography in poems composed by Jo O’Lone-Hahn. During a three-year internship at the Anchor House of Artists, O’Lone-Hahn was tasked with chronologically organizing, annotating, and archiving journals and sundry writings by the artist Genevieve Mae Burnett. Genevieve lived with persistent mental illness, schizophrenia, yet painted and wrote daily. Burnett’s journals in the archive start in 1959 and continue to the last month of her life, November 2015. Over ten thousand pages of writing are included in the collection, along with nearly eight hundred oil paintings and several hundred drawings. O’Lone-Hahn’s qualitative approach as a creative writer produced a vivid biographical profile of a very courageous painter. Essence of All Before Us: The Life of Genevieve Burnett  includes photographs and poetically re-framed journal entries. Because of this, the work carries an important, empathetic impression. It is uniquely useful to those wishing to understand the complex life of the artist, Genevieve Burnett. Please contact the museum for any questions.  —Michael Tillyer