It Does Not Last Forever, But It Always Returns

Acrylic on canvas
2024-2025
36" x 72"

A meditation on grief, I started this piece in Los Angeles after the unexpected death of a friend. For weeks afterwards, I paced along the beach searching in the sunsets for some form of solace. Instead, I felt flooded with grief. The electric pinks of Santa Monica sunsets reminded me of her fluorescent running shoes from a few summers earlier, when we were both nurses in lockdown and neither of us could sleep without the company of nightmares. Deep blue eyes and deep blue skies. Orange sunscreen bottles, orange and vodka in stainless steel cups, orange pool floats. 

I have found grief to be like a sunset. It returns over and over again. Some days, it is muted or obscured by the weather. On others, it is brighter and more saturated than usual. It does not last forever, but it always returns.