Raquel Lopes

Grief

This artwork was an opportunity to connect deeply with my own emotions and express something outwardly that I had been pushing aside. This piece was unexpected and when I started it I had simply a colour in mind and went from there. As I was painting Grief, I started thinking about the process of this emotion as I experienced it. To me, I was like a sea, there was light in it that shone through of what that person was, their light in your life, and on the world, and there was also the deeper pits of what was lost, the mix of emotions that felt like drowning almost. This artwork is an expression of a loved one passing and the grief that came with that.Within the context of my GradEx series it's the complete embracement of emotions, when you surrender to the feeling, and allow yourself simply to be. It's also a reflection on the experiences of generations before me, on their lives lived.