The Wild Edge of Sorrow

A watercolor painting of Godzilla surrounded by peony flowers and a Japanese rat snake. THE ART I loved Godzilla Minus 1. As a kid, I grew up with a father who loved old monster movies, and Godzilla (and Mothra) had a special place in family media lore.  Sometimes Godzilla was a protector, other times he was a menace. Sometimes a little of both? But in Godzilla Minus 1, he was so beautifully a manifestation of grief. And maybe that was the case in many of the other movies, and my child self was not picking up on deeper subtext? That happens. I am bad at that. Peonies in my work so often represent unapologetic joy, but in this piece I think of them more as the beauty that can be found in the shared experience of grief. I think that our grief reflects our capacity for love, and in my experience love is what we have left after the annihilation that grief can bring. We are left with the rawness of our own hearts, cracked open to better let the light in. This piece is named after one of my