Flotsam: illness & Death

In our society happiness is required. How do we express grief in a sustained or thoughtful way? In January 2018 my younger sister, Hazel, died suddenly and without warning.

Shortly before Hazel died I had a perforated appendix and spent six nights in the hospital for the first time in my adult life.

I have come to realize that happiness and profound sadness are not mutually exclusive. Life is not a binary situation. A wise friend told me to “put one foot in front of the other” and “address your complex relationship and feelings for Hazel and mortality through your work”.

The objects in the images – bloody bandages, pills, an abandoned, corroded pipe – speak to my ongoing quest to rediscover order under circumstances that are never propitious and out of materials that are less than promising. Ultimately, to understand.