Some Background
The Irreverent Widow Project, an original exhibit of art and words, premiered at the Silver Crayon Studios gallery in Portland, Maine in November of 2007. When I created The Irreverent Widow exhibit, and when I began to illustrate my stories with my treasured objects, I thought THAT was it… my opus of grief, my grand finale. The thing I was meant to do.
The exhibit opening led to various opportunities to work with other organizations that dealt with grief and healing. It was a way to share my story with the world, via my paintings, large sculptural illustrations, and writing.
Back then, my vision was a good one, but it was born of the need to share my personal grief. To make everyone understand how much I loved Drew, and how much his loss devastated my children and myself. But I realized that’s not really what the conclusion of all of this grieving stuff is supposed to be. To heal, we need to eventually get out of our own grief and focus on other people’s need to heal. As I read somewhere once, we cannot speak about our great pain until we are no longer IN great pain.
And if you’ve been widowed, no one else understands this, except another widow.
What I’ve realized is that my own body of work is merely a catalyst. And while it’s a celebration of the life I shared with my husband, and an expression of my grief over losing him, our future, and our “family of 5″ - it can, more importantly, provide a home for other women’s grief. A place for them to share their voices and celebrate their own special memories. And that is why I’ve created “Sacred Stuff: Treasures that tell our stories.” A permeable, changing exhibit that encourages community involvement and provides a place for widowed women to have a collective, creative voice. It will be made up of 2 components: a transient gallery space that will act as a container for my own work, as well as other women’s objects and words…and a permanent, virtual exhibit that will exist on my website, irreverentwidow.com
I hope you’ll join us and be part of this wonderful project.
For more information, please contact Sandi Amorello.
