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![Residuum [large] 36 x 60”](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/5c85540cb7c92c1344b892ff/1761529097561-LB7QJXC0Q137J3J2ASNV/Bog-painting-web.jpg)
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Atelier Frey
Gravity is the cumulation of personal grief rituals developed during my time as a graduate student. The gravity of it all, grounded on the terrain on which we stand, is the invisible force that keeps us physically here.
I’m compelled to share my reflective process to help others heal. There is hardly any consideration for mourning in modern American culture. Losing someone I loved was a confrontation of identity, and unwavering emotions weighed heavily on me. From the precursor exhibit called Mercury Tears, I filmed the therapeutic process of brushing away silver leafing from tears of sorrow, joy and rage... There is infinite loss in the delicate flakes that float and fall away, ash-like, brush after brush.
Grief changes us. We are in constant reaction, shifting mentally, physically and financially to stay grounded in the world. I let the paint you see, and other materials, guide me through mourning and recovery. Wood forms contain earthly aerial views, with edges and precipices familiar to those my emotions take me to. By abstracting loss in my work, I address the gravitational pull of our relationships, those both here and gone.
Grief is a spectrum throughout our lives. It takes up all the space it needs; it is pervasive and can last as long as love lasts. Many of us are dealing with loss on a daily basis with chaos and confusion from our global leaders, indifferent to those grieving. My use of materials, both real pewter and fake silver leafing, mirrors our fragility. We expose a thin shiny exterior of “coated” emotions. We continue our lives as if nothing has changed after a death, atrocities, trauma, fire devastation, job loss... as our personal ideals, dreams and identities are challenged.
A “Wailing Wall” continuum of stacked and rolled prints on Reeves BFK consisting of blind embossing (impressions seen from front and back), both successful and failed, pewter on paper, silver tears on paper, printed fallen leafing bits from Mercury Tears engagement, photographs, plane window motif or “sprockets” in the continual work leading up to this exhibit.
Acrylic, ink and silver leafing wood panel
Acrylic, ink and leafing on wood panel
Oak wood, burial flag, pewter, velvet (Flag not destroyed or damaged in any way in the process of this display.)
Many are dealing with loss of livelihoods and lives daily in the current chaos and confusion from our global leaders. How does this affect us as a collective? My act of wringing, twisting the American flag, so that it cannot be contained or rest, embodies the uncertainty of our democracy. As the mother of a US Marine, now Peace Officer, I’m mourning our ideals as a nation. This work is also inspired by Judith Butler’s text on who has “the right to mourn” from Precarious Life: The Powers of Mourning and Violence.
The wood forms hold aerial views of the earth’s surface and seas with familiar edges and precipices our emotions take us. These pieces become a wooden cross in form or an alter to preserving the natural world. These forms resemble flying over the Arizona desert to the SF Bay 28 times as caregiving was needed.