Kathleen

Through processing my emotions I invite others to reflect on their own experiences with grief. Documenting the ghosts left behind, decay, and the flowers left at graves, I implore the viewer to reflect on coping mechanisms, while also exploring their own experiences with loss. My practice considers why we so desperately want to hold onto the past in the form of physical representation. I am concentrating on the memories we attach to these objects and places after we lose those we love, and how they are seemingly tarnished forever like your grandmother’s jewelry.

My photography, preservation, and installation serve as an act of looking at the past and the future. By confronting the inevitable, and learning that through the grieving process things do get easier, we can learn to look back on memories fondly. I am heavily inspired by vanitas, which is the usage of symbolism in art as a reminder of the inevitability of death or change; as well as the usage of flowers as a language of sending messages of condolences and sorrow to those we love.