The Artists’
Grief Deck

"It takes 1,000 people for one person to grieve." Martín Prechtel Your village exists to witness this time. Your village existed from the moment you came here. Look around you. We will carry your gri...

Radical acceptance is a path. Equanimity is a goal. Five hundred years ago lived Akbar, third emperor of the Mughal Empire in South Asia. Seeking wisdom from his advisor Birbal, Akbar asked, “What w...

I wish......

You find a deer mouse lifeless at your doorstep and bury it in the yard. Place your pencil on the page where you imagine the grave. Now begin to trace the contour of the mouse: the skeleton, the pulmo...

Philosopher John O'Donohue once wrote to "keep something beautiful on your mind" during difficult times. To keep the grief from becoming all consuming think about something beautiful....a flower you s...

In grief we feel the intense loss of a loved one. It can help us to remember that love is an infinite resource. The love we feel extends not only to those people, animals, or spirits who are with us,...

Find an old picture of a memory with a person that has died. Use any materials you have (pencil, paints, clay, etc) to recreate this moment with this person. Revisit this memory by sitting still and l...

The passing of seasons can be painful. You may want time to stay still so that you won’t get farther and farther away from your loved one being alive. What’s something that you associate with each...

-Forgotten Memories In April of 2016 I lost my mother Caroline. This piece captures what I fell like when I can’t remember certain aspects of a memory with my Mum and how I feel as though the proces...

Read your favorite stories aloud and believe with all of your heart your loved one is listening closely to every page....

Sometimes our thoughts can tangle us up, and we need a way to break the cycle. Try drawing with both your hands to make you stop thinking and to help you relieve your emotions and stress onto a paper....

We are integrated people, made up of our physical, mental, spiritual and social components. Good self-care involves all four components. Taking a walk, eating a well- balanced diet, resting well all c...

Go outside, find a quiet spot to be still…and stop. Stop and observe the small details we are ignorant to as we struggle through the day. Sit upon a rock and watch the patterns the birds paint in th...

Create a digital memorial for your loved one. You might use your favorite online content curation platform, look at reviews of available platforms and choose one that’s right for you, or ask someone...

Time is one thing we can never, ever get back. Having a chronic illness caused me to lose the experience of having a normal life by any stretch of the imagination from 2012-2016 and our current pandem...

Recall moments of tenderness, both human and otherwise: the touch of hand on shoulder, the needed hug, a note or message, the way that your cats curl together, the delicate meeting of boulders in the...

close your eyes and look out the window of your mind. tell me, how fares the sky? is it dull or bright? heavy or light? be there sun or rain or fog or? — no matter what you find, just brea...

Sometimes nobody else is around, or there's nobody to turn to for a hug. Maybe your person who died is the one who gave the best hugs, or even the only one who hugged you. Sometimes you just have to g...

Sometimes I don't know what to do with myself, and I think of all the things I'd be doing if I were outside and how much things have changed since all of this started. The family and friends I havenâ€...