In Mourning In Memoriam
We have all dealt with loss, in some form or other, and this series of paintings all deal with a very personal loss, first of my mother, Patricia Anne Cole in 2016 and then my father, Barry John Cole, in 2017. As with everyone, my parents were probably the single most important factor in me becoming the person who I am today. For a long time after their loss, and even with the passing of time, finding the words to express the feelings after they died felt, and feels, next to impossible. The paintngs all try to express this sense of loss, albeit in slightly differing ways. Some of the paintings were fundamentally cathartic, an attempt at trying to capture and work through the sense of unreality I felt, the sense of something fundamental gone from my life and the world not being the same as it was before, but the paintings are also meant to function as a monument and memorial for my parents. There is the idea that art lives on long after we're gone, and that's what I wanted to do - create a legacy for them, in the only way I know how, so that some of who they were, what they did and what they meant to me will live on and never be forgotten