GRIEF TO RENEWAL: A TRILOGY

COMPLETED PROJECT

PROJECT OVERVIEW—ARTIST’S STATEMENT

The experience of moving beyond grief or loss to renewal has been at the core of my work for many years. I have created compositions in a variety of media to help me acknowledge, explore, and, finally, accept the emotions involved with grief and move beyond them. In 2012, I learned of a camera-less photographic process from the 1800’s that was utilized by botanists and architects to create work-related images on paper. Honoring, yet updating the process, I began creating cyanotype-on-silk images that caused me to remember and acknowledge my father’s struggles with, and death from, an incurable illness. This became the first stage, or acknowledgment, of my grief. As I viewed, enlarged, and photographed the edges of the silk pieces, I began to explore the emotional world that lay beneath the surface. This second stage, or exploration of grief, focused on the difficult emotions that emerge and must be confronted. In the final stage, acceptance, I have accepted his death and other losses in life, moved on, and found joy, hope, and a sense of renewal. The color blue has been the unifying element in my work. For me, it evoked feelings of sadness or emptiness. However, the color later became, along with the use of colored pencils and pastels, a reflection of the emotions of joy and hope.

It is my desire that as viewers contemplate my work, they will reflect on their own losses and gain strength and resiliency as they move forward in their lives.

Title: “Reflection,” Acknowledgment Group

Acknowledgment—Cyanotype-on-Silk (2012-2022)

In some societies, white is the symbol of death. One of my initial silk pieces of white flowers caused me to reflect upon the death of my father. Over time, I created a number of these images of white on blue. In remembering his life, I ultimately acknowledged his death and my loss.

These silk images were created by mixing a solution of ferric cyanide and other chemicals to create a light-sensitive liquid that I hand-coated, in the darkroom, on individual pieces of raw silk fabric. Once the silk dried, I used digital negatives, found objects, or other processes to create abstract images on the silk. As I varied the exposure time to ultraviolet light, I was able to enhance or soften the shade of blue. Each silk piece is unique, and available for exhibition. Pricing is available upon request.

Exploration—The Blue Immersion Portfolio (2015-2019)

This Series explores what emerges from life’s edges—unsettling, imperfect, disturbing. These dark, murky abstract ocean images became a visual metaphor for my exploration of my father’s death and other losses in life. I discovered a new world lurking beneath the surface. I seemed to be pulled under into a world that entangled or surrounded me. My aquatic designs are all-consuming expressions of sadness or despair that live beneath the surface.

These images were created when I enlarged, photographed, and explored the edges of my cyanotype-on-silk pieces. The Blue Immersion Portfolio currently consists of 10 images that are available for acquisition and exhibition.

Title: “Mountain Spring,” Acceptance Group

Acceptance (2019-2022)

These images explore the final emotional response to loss, which is acceptance. Joy, hope, and the ultimate reaffirmation of life follow from acceptance of loss. These images are softly colored, reminding one of spring mornings, mountain flowers in bloom, or one’s fantasies.

Beginning with the cyanotype-on-silk images, I photographed all or a part of the images, creating digital prints on fine art or rice paper. I then hand-apply pastel and/or colored pencil, creating a nuanced use of light and color to represent my evolving response to loss. Because of the hand-application of pastel and/colored pencil, no two images are the same. These images are available for acquisition and exhibition.