Memorial Painting

Sometimes the work chooses you.

For years people had asked whether I had ever considered incorporating cremated remains into a painting. My materials had always invited that question. The honest answer was yes — and that I had been afraid. I worried about inviting something I did not fully understand into the studio.

When a close friend asked me to create a memorial painting for her late husband, the fear dissolved. I felt with complete certainty that this was the work I was meant to do: to serve as a quiet guide through the transition of death.

From the moment the cremains arrived, I felt a clear and bright presence. The studio sessions felt like collaboration. Inspiration and intuition were unusually strong. Each day I returned with a sense of shared purpose. I stepped out of the way completely and invited him to paint with me. The results felt far beyond anything my limited ego could have produced alone. It was the clearest experience I have known of being in-spirit.

When the finished painting left the studio, the presence left with it. A quiet sadness followed, along with deep gratitude for what had been made together.
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The experience confirmed something I had long sensed: that painting can hold more than pigment and texture. It can hold memory, presence, and the quiet continuation of love.

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