Sorrow and Hope
Emily McPhie
- Medium
United States
ca. 2019
Oil on panel
Grappling with the death of her father, artist James Christensen, McPhie painted Sorrow and Hope to process the loss. She said, “There was a sweetness with the sorrow that was unexpected. I thought I had mourned before, but the feeling that came after my father’s death was not like anything I had ever felt. Sorrow feels like loss, an empty space, a weight, a pit, a sense that this can’t possibly be real.”
Yet “with grief comes gratitude for the love given and the memories shared. Gratitude that the relationship will continue and find more depth and meaning over time. Having accumulated faith, there was a knowledge at my very core of the continuation of him. From when he slipped from his mortal body until we will embrace on the other side of the veil, he still is. A comforting balm, hope follows sorrow.”