“Dusky Days” by Joy Redstone

I do not have any formal training in art but when I experienced a sudden bereavement 8 years ago, I began to create. Time slowed and a profound intrapersonal transformation followed, sharpening my vision and influencing how I interacted with material objects. My art recognizes and highlights a tension in the disparate value our collective places on broken, mundane, and discarded objects. My art can be described as process art, as each piece speaks to a memory or an emotional experience. The fragmented objects make a whole, speak as a testament to healing, and offer an opportunity for the viewer to reflect on their own intrinsic wholeness. I am a licensed clinical social worker and addiction counselor. I received my MSW from Boston College in 1995 and completed post graduate certificates in addiction counseling and clinical supervision. My clinical work has focused on the intersection of mental health struggles, addiction, and oppression and has been characterized by a commitment to advocacy and social justice. I use natural objects because I find so much solace walking and I use what I see to tether me to the here and now. I invite you to the patterns within the patterns. Light illuminates my path, and natural objects leap into my field of awareness, the spiral of a snail’s shell or a pinecone, the whirl of a burl, the mirror of mica. If you love the world enough, it presents itself to you in resplendence. My love for the world deepens in response to every loss I have experienced. I found my way, and I’ve called the widely scattered pieces of my soul back to me, and they’ve done as commanded, skittering and keening, rushing and leaping, to return my heart to me. I tuck them into these pieces of art.