Name Your Sadness Set It Free

“Name Your Sadness”  is a painting from my latest series called “Into The Half Light” with little pink clouds of encouragement to remind you that you can rise above even the hardest  situations. 

There was a time after Kienan passed when I thought that our little family would never be whole again. That is slowly changing. Recently I went back to The Seattle Art Museum for the first time since Kienan passed and was anticipating many triggers, to my surprise it was healing instead. I felt the life of my child so strongly within the building and art they deeply loved. Standing in front of one of their favorite paintings by Frederic Edwin Church  I couldn’t have anticipated how it would impact my experience with losing a child. I use to wonder every time Kienan pulled me in front of this landscape why they loved it so much.  Although beautiful It wasn’t their style. Standing there in the aftermath it came so clear.  It was the pink clouds… All of their life they would stop me to look at pink clouds. All of a sudden I could feel Ks entanglement with that piece of art and that entanglement carried a message directly to me. Once again we stood there in a new way looking at the pink clouds together.  This is the way that my family is learning to be open to and live with Kienan outside of their body so we can start to feel whole again.  Art makes that easier for us in many ways.

I have always believed that when we interact with art we exchange a piece of ourselves in the process.  An unspoken agreement where both parts become one in some way that never uncrosses. When that happens we can get a Birds Eye view of something bigger than ourselves. 

It was in that moment I had a realization that after Kienan left the body I had subconsciously been painting pink clouds in almost every piece I’ve made !?! And that in someways the separation between us and those we’ve lost is a thin veil even though a painful one. This is why art in all forms can transform, transcend and even stop time all together. 

So hopefully today you can name your sadness and set it free, find your version of pink clouds to guide you and find a smile and hope that transcends time itself and brings you the love you long for and deserve.