Lindsay West Art - Grief and grieving

Redneck fresco (pigments on toilet paper, joint compound, wood glue, and flour) over handmade acrylic

People die and the world turns; You have to mourn and you have to do the dishes.

I painted a man who'd been mauled by a bear around 40 times throughout the alleged five stages of grief. IT never feels like stages to me in the moment; just evil and unbearable and complicated.

At first, My reference made me squirm. After spending several hours with it, i could stare at it for hours on end it as if he was a vase of daffodils. still, out of nowhere, sometimes It'd kick me in the teeth.

Each version of the same subject refers to different versions of grief: vivid, abstracted, violent, heavy, constrained, confused, denied, and regretful, to name a few.