The Transformative Power of Art in Healing Grief: A Journey Through "Black Pond"

Artwork by Christina Foisy titled "Birch: To regrow in places of tragedy," featuring a mixed-media collage with organic materials, evokes a theme of renewal and resilience.

Grief is a force that shakes us to our core, a paradoxical experience that both shatters and reshapes our very being. When we lose someone we love, the pain often feels too heavy to carry, too complex to fully comprehend.

Yet, within this pain lies the potential for transformation—a chance to process our sorrow and make meaning from the chaos of loss. This is where art enters the picture, offering us a medium through which we can express, explore, and heal our grief.

In my work, particularly in Black Pond, I discovered how art—specifically poetry, collage, and memoir—could serve as a tool for navigating the complex and often invisible terrain of grief. Black Pond is a deeply personal reflection on the grief surrounding my mother's postpartum suicide and the impact of her death on my family, particularly my father, whose hoarding and home renovations became a way for him to cope with the loss. Through a blend of poetic narrative and collage, I found a way to confront the ghosts of my past, not to exorcise them, but to listen and learn from them.

Rebuilding the Past Through Art

Art has the remarkable ability to reconstruct what has been lost. In Black Pond, I use collage as a metaphor for this process of reconstruction. By physically layering and reimagining fragments of memory—objects, photographs, mementos—I was able to rebuild the story of my mother, a woman I could never truly know, and recontextualize the pain of her absence. Each piece of this

collage became a way to hold space for her memory, to honor the complexity of her life and death.

Through these artistic expressions, I also explored the concept of Mad Grief—a term coined by Jennifer Poole to describe the messy, unstructured ways in which grief can manifest, particularly for those who are marginalized by societal norms. In my case, my grief was compounded by the absence of language and support for women’s experiences of postpartum depression in the 1980s, a time when such struggles were largely ignored or misunderstood. My grief was further silenced by the stigma surrounding my mother’s suicide, a trauma that left me with more questions than answers.

Collage as a Dialogue with Grief

Collage, in particular, became my way of speaking to the dead. It allowed me to process my grief by bringing together disparate, fragmented pieces of my life—my father’s hoarding materials, my mother’s artwork, and the remnants of a life we couldn’t preserve. These physical objects, once seen as clutter or remnants of the past, became valuable texts in their own right, each holding a story, each holding a potential for healing. This process mirrors the act of healing itself—gathering the broken pieces of our lives and finding meaning in them.

In Black Pond, the act of collage is not just about preserving memories; it is about creating new narratives. Through the layering of materials and images, I explored how grief can be both destructive and generative. Just as my father tried to rebuild our home after my mother’s death, I too sought to rebuild my understanding of her and of my grief. Through art, I was able to reframe my loss—not as something to be fixed or forgotten, but as something to be felt, witnessed, and integrated into the story of my life.

A mixed media artwork featuring photographs and natural materials, creating a layered collage. The image includes a smiling woman holding a baby, surrounded by foliage, feathers, and textured elements, adding depth and dimension to the piece.

Grief as a Story Without Resolution

One of the most powerful aspects of using art to explore grief is that it allows us to hold space for the unresolved. Grief is not something that can be neatly packaged or understood in a linear way. It is messy, unpredictable, and often lingering. Black Pond does not offer a tidy resolution to the pain of loss. Instead, it embraces the uncertainty and complexity of grief, raising questions about what should be kept and what must be released. This process of questioning is essential for healing, as it encourages us to reflect on our relationship with the past and how we carry that past forward.

Through the combination of poetry and collage, I was able to explore the tension between holding on and letting go. The collages I created became metaphors for this struggle, as they combined elements of my mother’s life and my father’s grief into something new. The fragmented images and poems reflect my experience of living in a house filled with reminders of the past, where every object seemed to carry the weight of memories both cherished and painful.

A pregnant figure stands in a serene, watery landscape, surrounded by an intricate collage of natural elements like branches and fibers, highlighting the theme: "Birch: not just magical, but medicinal."

Embracing Grief Through Artistic Expression

Art, for me, became a way to transform grief into something productive and meaningful. It allowed me to move beyond the pathology of grief, moving away from the idea that grief is something to be “fixed” or “cured.” Instead, I came to see grief as an ongoing process—one that requires time, space, and compassion. By engaging with art, I could both honor the complexity of my emotions and create new ways to live with them.

In the process of creating Black Pond, I also discovered that healing is not about eliminating pain but about finding new ways to live alongside it. The collages and poems I created allowed me to carry my mother’s memory in a way that felt alive, dynamic, and ever-changing. They enabled me to confront the shadows of my past and to find a voice for the grief that had long been silenced.

The Role of Art in Rebuilding After Loss

Ultimately, the transformative power of art in healing grief lies in its ability to give voice to the unspeakable. In the absence of language and societal support for certain forms of grief, art provides an alternative space for expression. It allows us to process our emotions in ways that are not bound by conventional norms, offering us the freedom to explore, reflect, and heal at our own pace.

Through Black Pond, I hope to share a story that invites others to see grief not as something to overcome but as something to create with. By embracing the messiness and complexity of grief, we can begin to heal in a way that honors both the pain and the potential for growth. Through art, we can reimagine our losses, finding beauty in what has been broken, and creating new ways to live with the echoes of the past.

Grief may never be fully healed, but through the transformative power of art, we can learn to hold it in a way that allows us to move forward with greater clarity, compassion, and understanding.