Lasting Effects

Lasting Effects
Originally uploaded by elle3b

Lasting Effects reveals a journey of loss.

That journey began when I was young girl with the loss of my father, then many years later the loss of my brother David, and more recently the passing away of my mom on Christmas Eve.

Something inside me sought to bare my wounds and express this sadness that is part of my very fabric. I do this in an effort to move on, beyond those wounds. Only by looking at my grief squarely in the face can I get beyond it.

Loss is part of our life, whether it be great disappointment or the honest after effects of death itself. I have found strength in my endurance. Not to become a hollow shell, unfeeling, but to admit the sadness while reaching forward and living fully.

Though this piece has taken many years to complete, I am glad it is over with. I feel a sense of completion here, like the end of a sad tale. Though the road will wind by other difficult passages, I will hold on and move through it as I had done when I was a young girl holding on desperately to the only comfort I could find.

30" x 41" Pastel