You are not just buying a piece of art. You are buying a process. You are collecting an emotional journey.
You are not just buying a piece of art. You are buying a process. You are collecting an emotional journey.
Stage Four: Depression
“The Five Stages of Grief”
Grief always has a beginning. You never forget that precise moment when you are in shock over a freak accident, the loss of a loved one, a fatal diagnosis, or the sudden death of a relationship. Suddenly you find yourself on a journey in which you never agreed to partake. That journey always has a beginning, but comes without assurance of an ending. Grief does not follow a linear progression. And as you find yourself displaced on your travels, wandering through these forlorn states with neither your belongings nor an itinerary, you are forced to partake in self-analysis. And eventually, the trauma of loss becomes a facet of one’s identity. As an artist, this journey compelled me to create a series of mixed media paintings depicting the Kübler-Ross Model within an abstract framework. The series also pays homage to Franz Marc’s expressionist painting “Animal Destinies” as well as many other subtle influences from artists of the German Expressionist and New Objectivity movements*. My interpretations of “The Five Stages of Grief” are executed in five colorfully complex 16” x 20” acrylic paintings. Created in the late winter/ early spring of 2017, “The Five Stages of Grief” spotlight the complexity and capriciousness of human behavior. This collection provides insight to the ways in which trauma and grief impacts one’s identity. In an effort to share with viewers the sensory and emotional experiences of painting, I created five designs that showcase the wayward sentiments of an artist coping with grief. The series includes “Shock/Denial/Isolation,” “Anger,” “Bargaining,” “Depression,” and “Acceptance[?].”
In my own struggle to cope with intangible sentiments connected to emotional wounds, I transferred my personal experiences of trauma onto the canvases. Each painting incorporates a dizzying array of emotions in spontaneous as well as methodical brushstrokes. Utilizing the diverse color methods from Robert Plutchick’s psycho-evolutionary “Wheel of Emotions,” all of the works display varying degrees of interdependence with one another. Using notable abstract characteristics, I applied a variety of colors with gestural brushstrokes. Multiple layers are applied on each canvas until I “make peace” with each creation. Each design is accompanied with a set of musical pairings that can be found on my “Five Stages of Grief” playlist on Spotify. This series is aimed to provide validation and catharsis to audiences from all walks of life, especially those who have experienced a loss. The applications of diverse colors as well as the organic abstraction in “The Five Stages of Grief” serve to remind viewers of the fragility and resilience of the human condition.
*German influences include George Grosz, Magnus Zeller, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde, Käthe Kollwitz, Otto Dix, and Ernst Barlach.