10" x 10" framed (blonde hardwood) Mixed media on wood This piece is one of a series that emerged from a set of 100 letters written by my grandfather, whom I never met, while he was a young soldier serving in the US Army during World War I. He was a tailor and I, too, work creatively with my hands and fabrics. By placing his letters together with my fabrics, it’s as if we are in conversation in the current moment. My hope is to capture something about this lineage of hands, hearts and DNA. There are so many ways in which we are all in conversation with our past -- whether it's conscious or not. And what if this also means we can heal "backwards" in time? The small scale of the work underscores the intimate nature of this conversation and reflection.
Remedy #5 [20″ x 20″]
Ellen Brook2025-10-20T11:47:56-07:0020" x 20" Mixed media on wood panel This piece is one of a series that emerged from a set of 100 letters written by my grandfather to my grandmother while he was a young soldier serving in the US Army during World War I. I never met my grandfather. Separated from my grandmother by the unforgiving landscape of war, my grandfather offered remarkably sophisticated instructions for her to manage her anxiety and loneliness in one of his letters. He guides her to visualize their eventual embrace, to hold that image and feeling with intentional clarity, and then to allow genuine joy to fill her heart. "This is how I am coping everyday," he writes, "I find it to be the best remedy." As a student of Eastern wisdom traditions, I was immediately struck by the remarkable parallels between his intuitive approach to her suffering and ancient contemplative practices for mental transformation. The artwork Remedy #5 emerges from this profound moment of intimate wisdom, exploring how imagination can become a powerful tool for emotional well-being. $695
