For Christmas, I completed this for my daughter.  It measures 18" x 22".  I completed the background with acrylic and everything else is done in oil.  I'd considered gluing actual pine cones to the piece, but after playing with them some, I realized they were to brittle.  

The following work is about grief and the loss of a friend and her role in my life.  We all experience grief or will experience grief at some point in our lives.  It can come from the loss of a family member, relationship, or other tragedy. In any case, there are five main stages of grief, and I learned they can come and go, and in no particular order, sometimes taking many months.  They include: denial, bargaining, sadness, anger, and acceptance.  

Creating art can be very cathartic or healing.  I created this artwork roughly two years after the event had taken place.  Because I experienced each of the grieving emotions, it was important for me to visually convey each one.  I titled the piece "The unravelling" because while grieving, I felt as if my heart was unravelling. Notice how I intentionally had the red thread go through the heart of each of the figures, and as the figure in red exits the frame of the picture, the thread unravels my heart, about to finally break near my heart.  

This piece involved a variety of media; charcoal, acrylic paint, sharpie, oil paint, and human hair (the actual hair of the individual being depicted (a cut off pony tail I'd saved from years prior).  I chose to have each of the grey figures get progressively lighter until finally the one with outstretched arms (acceptance) is reached.  On each of the figures, I wanted to create value with the stippling technique where dots are applied over and over.  The grey figure on the farthest right is the emotion denial.  I purposefully chose to use white dots instead of black.  First of all, the black didn't create enough contrast against the darkest grey.  However, I too feel that denial refuses to accept the circumstances of what's happening, as if it can't be true, so I thought it was fitting to have him be different than the others.  

To get the pictures of myself in each position, I had to set up my phone camera on timer.   Then, I will often use Photoshop as a way to "sketch" out or put together the various parts or ideas of my artwork, prior to creating the tangible work itself. 

This artwork received honorable mention in mixed media at the Missouri Art Educators Association 2019 spring conference, where it competed among other artworks by art educators around the state.