Jonqui Albin

We now have a new angel watching over us! - Jonqui Albin, 77, a loving mother, grandmother, sister and lifelong artist, passed away on Monday, September 16, 2024. She is now free of pain and her vivacious spirit lives on. After 8 long days being non-verbal, she died peacefully in her home in the presence of her daughter, sister, brother-in-law, and caregiver. A local priest helped lead her send off, while everyone held hands, reminding her it’s ok to let go, they recited The Lord’s prayer, and shortly after they left the room, she took her last breath, and she transitioned to her next chapter - the Afterlife, where we will all be someday. 

Jonqui was a lifelong artist who experimented with cooking, weaving, styrofoam, video, painting, wire, book illustration, and more. She took pride in herself for taking unusual objects and finding innovative ways to use them. 

Jonqui Albin, born ‘Karen Lynn Tyler’ on January 24, 1947 in the Madison, Wisconsin, grew up enjoying the outdoors, ice skating, building forts, rescuing bunnies, turtles, and salamanders, & working at her dad’s much sought after ‘caramel corn’ stand. In 1963, when she was 16 years old, Jonqui and her family moved to "Sunny California" Escondido, where she became a school artist, painting set designs and murals. After graduating high school, she moved to Los Angeles. 

In the late 60s, she was a free-spirited hippie artist in Los Angeles, where she attended art school and had her work in local galleries. She met her daughter’s father ‘Geno Albin’ hitch hiking on the ‘Sunset Strip’ in Los Angeles, CA. Even though their relationship ended, while they were together, they created many innovated things together, including starting an alpha sprouts business called ‘Vitality Farms’ in Oakland CA. Jonqui designed the packaging, & Geno figured out the technology needed to grow sprouts inside a warehouse.

In the early 70s, they wanted to live off the grid and bought land in Covelo, CA, they named ‘Ouroboros’ after a book they read together, and where they built a two-story house with very little power tools. While Jonqui drove ‘Bluedy’ (their blue Chevrolet truck) to pull the logs, Geno placed them in the holes in the ground to build the house foundation. Jonqui designed the house layout, while Geno, a computer programmer mathematician, figured out how to get running water to the house, and electricity from car batteries.

After they separated in the 80s, Jonqui moved to San Francisco, where she experimented with video art in night clubs. 

In the 90s she moved to Sonoma, CA where she spent most of life, & she was best known for her abstract large bird paintings, bird wire sculptures, art classes with live hawks, and live painting performances at Davis Jazz Festival & Luna fest Film Festival.

Her last 2 1/2 years, she moved closer to her daughter in Ridgefield, CT.  As her illness with Lewy Body Dementia advanced, Jonqui and her daughter didn’t need to talk about her body and mind rapidly declining, instead they chose to enjoy the simple things with little time they had left together, went for a drive, appreciated the flowers & trees, did crafts with her granddaughter, went out to lunch, & got coffee.

Her daughter wrote: I am thankful we got to spend her last years close together, because I now see how healing that time was for both of us. She shared wonderful happy stories of me and my dad. I began to forgive my dad & my mom for my difficult childhood. The greatest gift was I was able to see my mom for who she was - a beautiful loving free spirit soul - who did the best she knew how. For now, it’s not good bye mom, instead I’ll see you in the afterworld, that I like to think exists where there’s no pain, we can fly free, play, dance & have fun.

A celebration of life gathering will be planned at a later date.

A private burial will be held in the coming week.

Sending love & peace to all.

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