Artworking, honouring tremendous loss

A$35.00

Artworking – lighting a candle, arranging flowers, getting a tattoo, wood working, telling a story, stitching or making first steps on a project – has unique potential to provide solace, lessen isolation and open conversations. Through artworking we can experience, express and gradually transform grief and loss.

In this deeply personal story, Annie Bolitho describes how, in artworking, she has found ways through her grief and loss, and come to thrive.

Artworking, honouring tremendous loss also introduces the reader to many artists, musicians, theatre makers poets and young people who have made work reflecting on loss through personal circumstance, oppression, disruption of societies and environmental disasters.

Artworking – lighting a candle, arranging flowers, getting a tattoo, wood working, telling a story, stitching or making first steps on a project – has unique potential to provide solace, lessen isolation and open conversations. Through artworking we can experience, express and gradually transform grief and loss.

In this deeply personal story, Annie Bolitho describes how, in artworking, she has found ways through her grief and loss, and come to thrive.

Artworking, honouring tremendous loss also introduces the reader to many artists, musicians, theatre makers poets and young people who have made work reflecting on loss through personal circumstance, oppression, disruption of societies and environmental disasters.

“Rich and a pleasure to read, a tender celebration of the power of creativity to provide nourishment even in the bleakest moments.”

Enza Gandolfo, textile artist and writer.

 

“In this book it is as if a friend materialises. Annie affirms that love doesn’t end with death – it shifts. There is no right or wrong way to grieve, and the relationship can continue on in powerful, unseen ways.”

Kelly Manning, artist.

 

Annie Bolitho's book navigates the complex territories of grief with sensitivity toward the historical and current landscapes of colonisation, political violence, climate change, diversity, marginalisation and migration. She locates her personal and family narratives of loss, isolation and connection in ways that honour the specificity of her ancestry and culture. Annie weavesthe fabric of this account from friendships, art, writing, philosophy and everyday interactions with the humans and 'earth others' she loves and re-members.
Assoc. Prof Sheridan Linnell, Head of Art Therapy, University of Western Sydney

 

 

"Annie's intimate vignettes feel like whispered stories on an afternoon walk, transforming the lonely terrain of loss into wildflower bouquets of possibility we can pause with now or press between pages for later. Through her collaborative heart, she gifts us scripts from her experience that make the deepest creative wayfinding accessible, illuminating how we might bloom even when no path forward is evident."​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​  Maya Haviland, Assoc Prof Museum Anthropology ANU, co-creative and parent.