Date of Award
Spring 3-23-2021
Document Type
Honors Thesis
Department/Major
Studio Art
First Advisor
Amber Hansen
Second Advisor
Dr. Lauren Freese
Third Advisor
Michael Hook
Keywords
visual art, grief, loss, death
Subject Categories
Fine Arts
Abstract
My series In Loving Memory focus on societal grief constructs and culture through presenting my experience with my father’s death in 2012. The current culture of grief in society needs to be reformed. Through my own personal vulnerability, I create an atmosphere to begin the uncomfortable conversation that allows for grief to have an existence. I aim not to show a correct way to grieve, just my way of grieving. Grief is universal because death is universal—but my work shows the deeply personal aspect of mourning and loss. I am, perhaps, not asking you to feel emotions as I feel them, but just know that your own grief process is perfectly natural and welcome. I explore the way that the conversation around grief stands today, and offer a sense of reform. I aim to start a healthier conversation—I do not know, nor can I provide the best answer, but I can provide how I dealt with grief and loss. And by being vulnerable in my own work, may the viewer feel just as safe to be vulnerable, so we can start a cycle of healing, rather than continuing the silence.
KEYWORDS: Visual Art, Grief, Loss, Death
Recommended Citation
Bitz, Sydney Anne, "In Loving Memory: Beginning the Conversation on Grief and Loss" (2021). Honors Thesis. 126.
https://red.library.usd.edu/honors-thesis/126