Chapters: The New Normal Series 2011 - 2012
The Series "The New Normal: Chapters" started simply with the idea that I wanted to paint women reading. After I started this series, my father passed away and added a new dimension to the work. Now each painting became a different stage in my grief and acceptance of his loss. (More info continues below slide show) BACK TO PORTFOLIO
"Chapters: The New Normal" illustrates through the subject matter of women and books the different stages of grief for myself after the passing of my father.
The first in the series, "Mourning" includes pieces of a newspaper obituary, as the main figure is crying tears of pearls in a landscape of thorns and snow.....but small buds and a Stellar Jay suggest the Winter of her Soul will shift from "Mourning" to "Morning".
The second in the series, "Respite" shows a woman with her journal at the beach - reaching toward a rose within a thorn bush. Here we see that there are moments in the grief process that there might be a "lull", or a respite that we take from the world, from where we can see that we will get through our heartache.
The third in the series, "The Good Mother" shows a mother and child, where the mother wears a halo of thorns and also bits of information about mothering: all of which contradicts themselves. Being a mother is incredibly difficult in this world where the definition of a "Good Mother" is different depending on who you speak with or what you read. And how to try to sort through THIS when one is coping with the loss of their own parent?
The fourth in the series "The Good Wife", similar to "The Good Mother", is how to continue a role that is very hard to define in this day and age, when one can barely even function in ANY capacity.
The fifth in the series "Good Friends" represents the support of friends during times of heart ache.
The sixth in the series, "Checked Out", showing a figure under the covers, escaping from the world with Nutella, a book, and her furry friends. Because trying to sort everything in the grief process and still fulfill ones' duties and roles can eventually lead to checking out.
The final piece, "Muses" looks to the Spiritual world that supported me during the shock of losing my father. The three figures are (from left to right) Athena, Patroness of the Arts with her Owl of Wisdom and holding paintbrushes; The Sage/Source/God(dess) with a message from the I-Ching (Hexagram 32, H'eng, "Perservering"); and a woman wearing one of the traditional dresses of Norway, called a bunad - this particular style is from Oslo, and I have inherited my father's mothers' bunad in this style.
These three women represent Art, God, and Ancestors.
The first in the series, "Mourning" includes pieces of a newspaper obituary, as the main figure is crying tears of pearls in a landscape of thorns and snow.....but small buds and a Stellar Jay suggest the Winter of her Soul will shift from "Mourning" to "Morning".
The second in the series, "Respite" shows a woman with her journal at the beach - reaching toward a rose within a thorn bush. Here we see that there are moments in the grief process that there might be a "lull", or a respite that we take from the world, from where we can see that we will get through our heartache.
The third in the series, "The Good Mother" shows a mother and child, where the mother wears a halo of thorns and also bits of information about mothering: all of which contradicts themselves. Being a mother is incredibly difficult in this world where the definition of a "Good Mother" is different depending on who you speak with or what you read. And how to try to sort through THIS when one is coping with the loss of their own parent?
The fourth in the series "The Good Wife", similar to "The Good Mother", is how to continue a role that is very hard to define in this day and age, when one can barely even function in ANY capacity.
The fifth in the series "Good Friends" represents the support of friends during times of heart ache.
The sixth in the series, "Checked Out", showing a figure under the covers, escaping from the world with Nutella, a book, and her furry friends. Because trying to sort everything in the grief process and still fulfill ones' duties and roles can eventually lead to checking out.
The final piece, "Muses" looks to the Spiritual world that supported me during the shock of losing my father. The three figures are (from left to right) Athena, Patroness of the Arts with her Owl of Wisdom and holding paintbrushes; The Sage/Source/God(dess) with a message from the I-Ching (Hexagram 32, H'eng, "Perservering"); and a woman wearing one of the traditional dresses of Norway, called a bunad - this particular style is from Oslo, and I have inherited my father's mothers' bunad in this style.
These three women represent Art, God, and Ancestors.