STATEMENT OF INTENT — Weight of Witness
Weight of Witness is the culmination of a profound personal and artistic turning point in my life. After the death of my husband Tom, I entered a period of intense grief, self-reconstruction, and deep creative inquiry. For thirty-five years, our lives were intertwined through love, caretaking, and the emotional complexities of living beside someone experiencing long-term depression, trauma, and suicidal ideation. His passing did not end that story—it transformed it.
This project is my first major body of work as a fully self-directed artist, no longer creating from the shadows of a partnership but from the clarity of my own voice. It represents the moment I move from witness to author, from intuitive image-maker to intentional storyteller.
The intention behind this project is to explore the emotional architectures that shape relationships, the symbolic languages of intuition, and the internal landscapes revealed through traumatic loss. My work seeks to illuminate the silent suffering many men experience under cultural expectations of stoicism, and the emotional labor borne by those who love them.
In creating this work, I aim to contribute to broader conversations about grief, mental health, identity, and self-reclamation—particularly for women whose lives have been shaped by caretaking roles or by proximity to another’s unseen pain. Through multidisciplinary practice, I create immersive, psychologically resonant spaces where personal narrative becomes mythic, symbolic, and universally accessible.
This body of work is not only deeply personal but culturally relevant—addressing mental health, grief literacy, and the transformative potential of art as a site of truth-telling. This project is the turning point in my artistic life.
