Expressing Grief: A Visual Journey
What does grief look like to Krystal Mackey?
Images:
1st image: “The Pit #4”: The pit is the yucky feeling in my stomach, the hole (void of my dad),
and also the place I go when triggered. This pit is really fire-y, but after drawing it, I noticed it
looks like something may be blooming out of the mess.
2nd image: “Wrung Out”: I was collapsing, getting back up, and collapsing again; feeling so
much, I was wrung out. Like there was nothing left.
3rd image: “Blossoming”: With all the work I was doing to open my heart, there were moments
when I felt I was growing. And the pit/hole was feeling better.
Krystal Mackey, a hospice volunteer with Northwest Colorado Health, is opening up about her own grief journey during November’s First Friday Artwalk on November 1 at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church. In her forties, stomach troubles and anxiety led her to investigate what was going on beyond the physical. Working with a therapist, the grief of her father’s passing when she was four years old finally surfaced.
Drawing became one of the ways Krystal coped with her grief. “As a very visual person, drawing really helps me process. I see the images in my head, and I just need to put them down on paper so I can look at them. And the little 4-year-old inside me doesn’t have many words,” said Krystal.
Her use of drawings to work through pain started when she and her first husband divorced. Back then, she created about eight drawings with similarities to her newer ones. This time, she has produced over 130 drawings. Krystal advises those wanting to explore art as a way to cope with trauma to think of drawing as a physical exercise, “where the pen is expressing your emotions. Don’t worry about what it looks like or what the finished product will be. Often you end up expressing something you didn’t even know you had in you,” said Krystal.
At the show, there will be a catalog describing all the art, with writings from the time of the drawings explaining what each image is about. The show is part of a larger movement to raise awareness around grief and provide a space for the community to connect with Northwest Colorado Health’s bereavement offerings, which include community grief support groups and a free grief resource library.
