After a long illness, my mother died on December 21, 2022. Having continuously watched pieces of her disappear over 9 years, the final death felt like a resolution: it wasn’t.
My current work is, in itself, a ritual for coping as well as a reaction to societal expectations of grief. Through the lens of grief, I explore ritual, identity, transformation, and the divergence of society and personal experience. This exploration includes the examination of my personal grief, my identity before and because of grief, as well as ritual and grieving actions beyond those openly accepted in western society.
My practice incorporates art as meditative ritual in the same vein as Motoi Yamamoto’s Saltworks and I am joining the conversion of the efficacy of western societal grief practices as in writings such as "The Bleeding Tree" by Hollie Starling and "'It’s Like A Tattoo': Rethinking Common Discourses on Grief" by Robyn L. Ord.
I create objects formed of flat acrylic painting on live edge wood with sculptural elements, allowing the work to grow into the viewer’s space. These objects display a narrative and are the direct result of material transformation and ritual: art as ritual as well as creative actions, such as sanding, that occur within set, personally meaningful guidelines. The use of folk and fringe, or occult, symbolism and practices expresses the distance between personal grieving experience and societal expectations as well as providing a recognizable vehicle for story telling. Written verses may also be incorporated.