August 1, 2022
Setting the stage…
My mother died several years ago, and it’s been just over a year since my father passed. My parents were married nearly seventy years. Dad was grief-stricken and living alone. Helping him with his grief, I hoped my caregiving would be enough to prevent him from succumbing to his broken heart.
Then the unexpected, the global pandemic. Shortly after it began, my husband and I moved to Ohio to live with Dad. Looking back, we realize how lucky we were for the three of us to share in this time together.
After Dad’s death, I began to understand that the grief I was feeling was not only for Dad but also for Mom. I had set aside my grief after Mom died in order to be fully present for Dad. Even though I have helped others journey through their grief many times, I was not prepared for this powerful sense of loss. Often, and with good intentions, people would say to me, “your dad is in a better place.” I could not bring myself to agree and wanted to express my feelings about life, death and loss. To share this is my inspiration for Three Spirits.
In this work…
I use the trees as a symbol for the living spirits of my father, my husband and myself. The painting is divided vertically into halves. The right half is an abstract visualization of the realm of the living spirit. The two trees on this side of the overall composition lack solid form. They are luminous, full of light and energy derived by a universal spirit, shared and entwined with the spirits of all God’s creation— the life-giving breath we take in at birth. The left half of the painting transitions from the abstract expression of the spirit in the sky into an impressionistic and solid form in relationship with the earth— the body of creation. This tree, representing my father, is in the mid-ground expressing the transition of his spirit between heaven and earth. Above, the limbs relinquish his remaining spiritual energy into the awaiting arms of the sunrise and into the greater universe. Below, the limbs join the trunk and become solid, coalescing as the spirit departs and as it is left behind to rejoin the earth in relationship with God’s beautiful creation. A cardinal perches in this tree— Mom’s spirit form, waiting for the final transition and release of the soul into communion with the universal spirit of the Holy.
Also, there is a gentle transition between the fully spiritual on the right side and the transitioning spirit on the left. Abstract shapes of the foreground meadow on the right continue as impressionist marks on the left.
Through style and color…
As if peering through an ice-covered window pane, I attempt to create a luminous early morning light. The colors create a pleasant and reassuring glow of the spiritual energy that surrounds us, flowing through us and binding us to the universe. Morning is when I personally feel the closest to the living spirit around me and in communion with me— it is a moment in my day when the unseeable can be imagined, felt and heard if I only observe and listen. I use texture and color to make marks representing the movement of energy surrounding us and gestural strokes describing the transformation between a spiritual existence and earthly one.
A journey in faith…
Not only was this painting extremely personal to create but also amazingly healing and allowed me, as an artist, to share my interpretation of loss and the need to understand more fully a spiritual life in our present and beyond.
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