Rachel Thompson
A Glimpse of Grief
This body of work demonstrates therapeutically the mess of grief. The recent loss of my grandfather impacted me deeply leading me to work through strong emotions with image making and journaling. Throughout this senior art exhibit it includes distinct stages of my grief journey expressed by film, painting, and mixed media. The use of multimedia captures moments of the process to draw the viewer into further understanding of different stages of grief. The art therapy processes that are shown in this exhibit are using objects that remind me of my grandpa, while painting with those objects in a way that allows me to release those painful emotions into the artwork. Different positions while painting, objects I am holding, locations I am painting in are all a part of my process in the therapeutic realm of art making. My intention is to allow the viewers to experience the messiness of grief. The viewers are not supposed to look at my art within a fine art perspective, but instead look at the pieces with an appreciation for understanding that grief is messy. The process of grief is still not over so my work does not have a piece that resolves the process since I have still yet to reach acceptance about this immense loss in my life.
