Artist Statement: The Skies Cried as My Fathers Died

This collection of Rachel Brask's paintings are an expression of wayfinding through grief, joy, and memory, while embracing hope and light, after navigating the compounded loss of two fathers in the same year.

In this intimate and deeply personal collection of paintings, Rachel Brask channels some of the bittersweet grief and broken beauty she experienced in mourning the illnesses and deaths of her father, Keith, and father-in-law, Will, within months of each other. These overlapping waves of grief and memory are expressed through her signature style of rainy oil paintings of abstracted landscape. This collection is inspired by painting the skies and landscapes experienced and recalled by the artist and her husband during milestones and memories in their fathers’ respective end of life journeys. Some memories are difficult, others are joyful or ironic. 

During times of crisis and loss, we project our fears, emotions and questions into the skies. We look up for many reasons: needing escape, seeking answers, expressing anger, needing hope, searching for meaning, observing in awe, pushed to existential exhaustion, and craving connection. Rain also has a special ability to provide a quiet veil upon which we recall memories, contemplate meaning, and it gives us a pause that can quiet our thoughts and allow feelings in. These paintings are about seeking the light in the darkness, hope in the abysmal, and beauty in the storm.

"These rain paintings are for anyone feeling, healing, or dealing with grief, recent, or from awhile ago," states Rachel Brask. "Grief is a journey that nobody wants to find themselves on. I am to paint the light and hope that I see along the way -- to create a calm and contemplative space for people to take a moment to breathe and reflect."