Year: 2020

Medium: Acrylic paint, and polymer clay on acrylic sheeting set in wood frames

Dimensions: 24″ x 50″ (when closed)

As conscious beings I think many of us have a morbid curiosity towards death and dying. My mother was an end of life care worker, and my grandmother worked in the morgue, so death was never a closed subject. Over the years, I’ve seen a lot of people who see living and dying as two separate entities, when in reality- we are all living and dying simultaneously. I wanted a piece that conveyed this better than words could. Something that showed the beauty in both life, and death, and how they are one in the same. I’m not claiming to know anything nobody else does, but I find solace in knowing that no matter what else is out there, I cannot fully die because I AM life. I am the child, the womb, and the mother. We know that energy cannot be made or destroyed. So even when I’m no longer in this body, my life will continue to feed the bees and the flowers and the dirt from which I was born, so that they may live too. We are never fully gone, just taken a different form.

– Haley Wood