UNDER the CRESCENT MOON
Under the Crescent Moon is a compilation of art and writing from my Grief journals, created after losing my husband in March of 2020. The book is an intimate look into the power of creativity as a companion in the grieving process.
Since my husband died, I have maintained a twice-daily practice of sitting before the journals and allowing the creative process to be both a portal and a map. I am companioned by the art to guide me through the dark and uncertain journey of grief, as the images show me my inner territory. It is my hope that this book will be a salve for someone experiencing grief – a light in a dark time. Although the book is about my journey, I feel there are strands of the collective grief experience woven throughout.
"You are much stronger
than anything that happens to you.
There is no death without rebirth."
RITUAL BURNING
In November of 2023, I had an exhibition of prints and journals created since losing my husband in March of 2020. I held the exhibition in the studio which Mark began building before he died and was finished posthumously.
Downstairs displayed a series of prints chronicling the grief journey over 2 years. Upstairs, there were 34 “grief” journals. They reflected a place where art was a Map and a portal in my apprenticeship with grief.
A map to show me the way forward during a dark and uncertain time and a portal that allowed me to enter the spaciousness of creative expression that heals. At the end of the exhibition, I invited community members to join me in a fire circle to burn all the journals. People were invited to bring what they were ready to offer the fire. We held a quiet ceremonial space upstairs before descending to the fire to release and purify. It was a powerful and healing experience that, upon reflection, was more like a grief ritual than an exhibition. The experience opened the way for me to offer grief rituals as part of my ministry.