The Artists’
Grief Deck

When I gather the fragments together, nothing makes sense. Everything is scattered and haphazard. But something may catch my eye, something accidental and unexpected. A color combination, a shape I ha...

Make your mark on the past. Having lost my dad aged 5 & several other people close to me throughout childhood, people expect my childhood to have been sad or dark. But in fact it was packed with c...

Losing someone or something important to us brings home the fact there is much in life we cannot control. Control is something we thought we had, but ultimately there are many things in life we cannot...

Deep down, our human animal knows how to grieve. Trust yourself. Grief is a personal process, and your grief is as unique as you are. No one has the right to tell you how to walk your grief journey....

My great grandmother was one of the most special, wonderful people in my life. She would fly from New Zealand to Australia every year for my birthday, and she would stay in my room, telling me countle...

Find a supportive space to create a place to sit. Light a candle. Let yourself have some time sitting with this candle light. Your eyes can be softly open or closed. Think with this light. Feel with t...

Loneliness is in integral part of grief. It is hard to accept and feel the loneliness of loss. Consider filling some of the emptiness you feel with other people and activities, such as volunteering or...

Did I become a butterfly when I dreamed, or did the butterfly become me when it dreamed? In any case, butterflies are not confused, and even if they are, they are a small being, and so am I....

Grief is a four-dimensional possession. It fills some part of this room, and it also reaches back in time and toward the future. First study how 3D objects are enclosed: how 2D cloth or paper can be l...

We all grieve differently and we carry our grief differently. Let’s explore our grief and the places in our bodies where we hold and carry that grief. Start with a body scan - take a couple of deep...

Time is one thing we can never, ever get back. Having a chronic illness caused me to lose the experience of having a normal life by any stretch of the imagination from 2012-2016 and our current pandem...

Sometimes we feel our life is an only one way road. Immersed in suffering and loving we believe there is only one construction. May be we can repair or rebuild part of the road and ourselves. Try to g...

You find a deer mouse lifeless at your doorstep and bury it in the yard. Place your pencil on the page where you imagine the grave. Now begin to trace the contour of the mouse: the skeleton, the pulmo...

My dad passed away a year before Covid hit and what made that time of isolation even harder was that I was also going through a really tough time dealing with his passing. As I was trying to get motiv...

Grief comes in waves. One day you're fine, the next you can barely breathe. The smallest thing can trigger a flood of emotions and memories, and it can be overwhelming. In my own grieving, I'm often t...

Elisabeth Elliot wrote a simple definition of suffering in her book Suffering is Never for Nothing. She defines suffering in this way: Suffering is having what you don’t want or wanting what you don...

Sadness can dull your colorful spirit. Embrace the experience to learn something about the shapes and hues that ignite your soul. Soon, your ways of seeing will change. With the eye of an artist, you...

Read your favorite stories aloud and believe with all of your heart your loved one is listening closely to every page....

It’s okay to fall apart in the midst of rebuilding your life. Fill in the blanks: I have learned how to____ since my loss. I have overcome_____ since my loss. Now say it out loud while looking at yo...