The Journey
It was the early spring of 1972 when I lost my mother. She passed on a warm mid-April day, after a long illness. I was 14 years old. She, only 39. The days, months, years that passed have colored my world then, and now, for almost 50 years.
This project is a visual interpretation, a metaphor, of the feelings of isolation, sadness and mourning experienced with the loss of a loved one. It was created during the first year of the pandemic, which suddenly and surprisingly evoked within me that far away and loss from long ago.
In the days, weeks and months after my mother passed the world appeared familiar, yet unfamiliar. It was entirely separate and apart from the life I knew before or would build for myself again. The view was unsettled, muted, diminished. Still, life had to proceed, to march on. But it never looked exactly the same.
Loss and isolation remain, and will always remain, part of each person’s personal Journey.
Stephen Starkman, February, 2021