Loss is a universal experience, inescapable, inevitable and terrifying. At some point every person will come to know it. It arrives in many forms: sudden or slow, loud or silent, gentle or violent. It touches us through the death of a loved one, the fading of love, the erosion of innocence, or the realization that something once cherished is no longer within reach.
The figure in this piece is not meant to represent a specific deity or symbol, but a representation of the pain grief causes. It is embodiment of grace, mourning and stillness in the face of the inevitable separation of loss. Sometimes, the deepest grief comes from something quiet, small, and unspoken, something so fragile no gold or lace can protect. Loss is a subject that is held gently, as though the act of cradling it might somehow keep it from breaking, though we know, deep down, it already has.
This piece does not offer comfort. It does not resolve grief. It simply holds space for it, to exist, to be seen, to be honored. Loss is not something to overcome, but something to carry and in that act of carrying, there is a quiet kind of love.