This body of work marks a departure from the representational and decorative, heralding a new era for me as an artist, embracing movement, curiosity, and emotional-spiritual expression.

Each of these works were completed from August-Sept of 2024, an outcome of processing grief after a tragic loss that May. Grief so often moves in tandem with magic- dazzling winks from the universe to let us know there is no real death, our love is real, our connections are real, our lives have meaning. Big loss carves a holy depth, which ebbs and flows with pain + heartbreak, also with laughter, love, and beauty.

This is the work that came when I decided to paint about it. My intention was to create representational, commemorative artwork, but as I began painting, the sensations of movement and color took over, and I let myself explore.

Through surrender caused by grief, a door opened to a part of myself I thought I had lost in childhood. A part that feels like home. As I let my hands move colors across the paper, I felt things move inside of me as well. A playful opening, a deepening of my felt connection to the great mystery, love, acceptance, hope.

In these works, I see the Aurora Borealis, important phone calls, whales jumping all around after we released ashes into the ocean, my daily mental-health walks, the healing of salt water, the turning of time, the great great loss, and the feeling of pulling myself out of an ocean of grief and looking right into the sparkling eyes of life all reflected in this exploratory body of work.

All pieces were painted with watercolor, gouache, aquarelle crayon + pencil on 18x24” cold press cotton paper in 2024 by Jackie Dandelion