'Afterlife' Explores Different Beliefs About The Soul's Portal

ST. PETERSBURG, FL — The soul's journey after death is whatever you make it, according to the art exhibit, "Afterlife," at Mize Art Gallery.

Gallery owner and artist, Chad Mize, features works that explore what happens during and after death. Mize's piece, "Choose Your Own Afterlife," loosens rigid beliefs about heaven and hell being the soul's only after-death options. It was based off a childhood book that Mize enjoyed, "Choose Your Own Adventure Books."

"When I was thinking about the afterlife, it's kind of like that, you kind of decide what you feel is going to be your afterlife," Mize told a Patch reporter. "It's your belief system. And I also kind of thought of it as a video game to show that we're all going to pick what's going to happen when we die."

His creation resembles a Nintendo controller with different colored buttons that have a selection at the bottom of each: Heaven/Hell, Hyperspace, Reincarnate, Spirit World, Surprise Me. Mize said he'd choose, "Surprise Me," because he expressed that no one really knows what happens after we die.

"Louis," by Matthew Giordano allows the observer to see either darkness or light during the stages preceding death.

"Death comes for us all; either a sudden moment, a shock, or a slow, gradual process," Giordano said. "When one departs, what happens to the soul? The viewer decides if the soul is emerging into light, representing the idea of eternal life or is it dissolving into darkness, representing the idea of nothingness, the end?"

Another artist, Rebekah Lazaridis, explored spirits left behind on this Earth after she and her husband moved into a haunted house in 2018 in Tampa.

"We discovered that we were merely guests in the house as it was already inhabited by many spirits, some of of which weren't inviting," Lazaridis said. "I wonder why some people 'cross over' after death and why others remain here. In my bathroom."

Her painting, "Anne," shows a spirit of a girl looking outside a window at her home.

Mize lost a lot of people to death in 2020, and as he explored his thoughts about life after death, he came up with the exploring death theme for March's show.

"Afterlife," opens Friday with a virtual tour on Facebook Live at 6 p.m., and on Instagram at 7 p.m. The gallery is open Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sundays 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., or by appointment.