1416 by melisa james

STATEMENT:

March 16, 2010

MEDIUM:

paper, acrylic paint, appointment cards, funeral images and glue.

1416

the title to my work for this project is 1416. this title represents the number of days that my father has been dead. as of today it has been 1416 days. this project is a reflection of my feelings from the first year after his accident. he was killed on the highway riding his motorcycle.

when i started greif counseling it was not a conscious decision to save my appointment cards. i just tucked them away into a cubby in my car after every visit and forgot about them. after about a year i noticed that i had a good amount of cards, at that point i decided to continue saving them for an art project. having no idea what or when this project would reveal itself to me, i just continued tucking the cards into the cubby. it has now been almost four years.

in this piece i have decided to only represent the first year after the accident. the book is broken down into months january through december. my father passed away in april, but i did not seek professional help until the following january. each month is represented by the appointments i had. i did not realize until i did this project that i attended a session just about every other day the month of october. october is the month he was born. the back side of the book represents the repetition in my thought and inability to focus on anything else in my life. i was completely consumed with the grief.