Loss of A Loved One, 2020

Loss of My Vessel, 2020

Loss of Potential Memories, 2020

Loss of Something I Should've Never [..], 2020

Loss of Time, 2020

In the 10th grade, I fell in love with Rap music and its artists. That year, I wrote my first song a month after my great-grandfather, Eddie Bryson Jr., passed away. Since then, I have grown to notice how both rapping and significant loss share intersecting importance in my life’s timeline. For the past four years, I have written more than enough songs about things I have lost: relationships, loved ones, opportunities, time, etc. To write a song, I go through the process of writing and rewriting words to match a rhythm, attract a certain response, or convey a feeling. For this series, I was driven to use the mediums of oil and acrylic paints to bring forth that process in my visual art. 

Each painting starts with a song or poem written about the “loss of…” and the feelings I carry from that event. Much like my grief, the art process is layered in steps. The metaphors from the songs inform the choice of an object. Then, I engage with multiple iterations of abstracting the same object to reflect my writing process. I allow myself to feel frustration and confusion, but I ultimately come to a place of acceptance. What’s left is a moment of time seen on the canvas, and I hope that the viewer seeing this moment can also accept what it makes them feel.