This artwork is a raw, literal snapshot of my grief in the immediate aftermath of losing my Nana Harriet. The cuts you see on my face and lips aren't simply symbolic — they represent the actual sting and burning on my skin from the endless tears I cried for her. Grief does that. It isn't just emotional. It is physical. It lives in your body, and I wanted to capture that truth honestly, without softening it.
Even the wound on my wrist tells its own part of the story. It speaks to the heavy, physical toll of simply trying to hold up that mirror and face myself in that exact, heartbreaking moment — recording all of that pain onto a single piece of glass. Sometimes just existing through grief takes everything you have.
But then there is the Red Admiral butterfly, perched right at the top of the mirror. And this is the most important part of the entire image.
When my Nana was young, she had the most beautiful, long copper-red hair. Before she died, she made me a promise. She told me, "Look for Red Admirals in the future — it's me coming to visit you." So when you look at this piece, you are not just seeing grief. You are seeing the exact moment she kept her promise and came to visit me when I needed her most.
This artwork holds both things at once — the unbearable weight of losing her, and the quiet, extraordinary comfort of knowing she found her way back.
Collect Her
Emotionally Scarred is available in three formats, each one a piece of her story to take home with you.