I did some illustrations for an event at Fictive Dream, an online fiction magazine specializing in short stories. It’s called “Revisits”. In it, the magazine revisits “the best of the back catalog”, as editor Laura Black says. Every two weeks through August, a different theme will be explored.
Look here for the first post, Love, which also offers an overview of the parameters of the art aspects of this project.
Today, May 22, the theme is Grief. Here’s the image:
In earlier projects for Fictive Dream, as you know, I made a couple of images for each story. I followed that trend with the earlier Love and Abuse and Growing Up. At this point in the process, though, I was feeling more confident of the direction of my work in general, as far as interpreting themes, and for this theme, I had a very clear idea of what I wanted to do. I figured I’d give it a try, show it to Fictive Dream editor Laura Black, and see what she thought. If it didn’t work, our discussion would give me direction and I’d just take things from there.
I took my inspiration from several things. First, as far as the color scheme, I wanted to reflect the emotion in grays, browns, and dark blues – a sere, devastated kind of landscape with an overcast sky.
The shape of the tree needed to reflect the emotion as well – I felt downward reaching branches would give the right feeling. When people grieve, shoulders slump, the head is down, they draw into themselves and the feeling, and that’s what I wanted the tree to portray.
I had two visual sources I worked from. One was the recurrent motif of the willow tree, with its downward flowing branches, found in mourning samplers from the 1800’s (look here for an example). I have had an interest in needlework throughout my life and have learned a little about the symbolism and history of mourning embroidery.
The other source was a photo I took some years back. It’s a tree standing in front of a local elementary school. I found the branch patterns dramatic. I entered it in a camera club competition and it won a prize, so I kept the image and was able to refer to it.
With these pictures in mind, I created the representation of the tree. When I showed it to Laura, she liked it, and so, the image for Grief was done!
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Yes. Just so. (K)
Thank you.
The image perfectly encapsulates the feeling of grief. It is always interesting to learn your thought processes.
This image came together pretty easily for me (because of the two references I mentioned in the post I had something to give me momentum) and I am pleased with the outcome. I felt it showed the emotion but was dignified and spare at the same time.
This piece of artwork reflects the emotions associated with grief and loss perfectly. The colours of the sky and land are right for the theme, and the downward pointing branches of the tree really do indicate the body language of grief, as you say. There are some wonderful touches: the addition of the two purple stripes at the bottom lifts the artwork. In particular, I love the four leaves to the left of the tree, which may be read a tears. Wonderful, Claudia, thank you.
This piece of artwork reflects the emotions associated with grief and loss perfectly. The colours of the sky and land are right for the theme, and the downward pointing branches of the tree really do indicate the body language of grief, as you say. There are some wonderful touches: the addition of the two purple stripes at the bottom lifts the artwork. In particular, I love the four leaves to the left of the tree, which may be read a tears. Wonderful, Claudia, thank you.
This piece of artwork reflects the emotions associated with grief and loss perfectly. The colours of the sky and land are right for the theme, and the downward pointing branches of the tree really do indicate the body language of grief, as you say. There are some wonderful touches: the addition of the two purple stripes at the bottom lifts the artwork. In particular, I love the four leaves to the left of the tree, which may be read a tears. Wonderful, Claudia, thank you.
Thank you, Laura. As always I am impressed by your attention to the details of the artwork and how you translate different aspects (like the leaves) into symbols for emotions or see them as alluding to other words or objects. I always hope that people will go beyond the surface when looking at my art and find meanings beyond the portrayed images. I think Grief was particularly good for this because trees have an acknowledged symbolism in this topic, and I also think a drooping tree looks very human in this context.
This piece of artwork reflects the emotions associated with grief and loss perfectly. The colours of the sky and land are right for the theme, and the downward pointing branches of the tree really do indicate the body language of grief, as you say. There are some wonderful touches: the addition of the two purple stripes at the bottom lifts the artwork. In particular, I love the four leaves to the left of the tree, which may be read a tears. Wonderful, Claudia, thank you.
I’m always in awe of your ability to express emotion in your art. This is so moving and I had never heard of grief needlework. Something new to explore.
Thank you. This series was difficult to find a way in, but once we did, it all became clear. Grief was one of the easiest ones because of the associations with trees that I knew of – they have been symbols (of this as of many other things) for eons. And having that local tree to remember, too, that encouraged me in how I ended up doing this one.