Beyond The Veil

"Beyond the Veil" is a series of ten graphite drawings exploring the relationship between the living and the dead as one of equilibrium or duality. In earlier ancestral worship traditions, it was believed that passed loved ones could visit their family through dreams and visions to provide protection and spiritual guidance. In return, living family members would create sacred spaces, ceremonies, and practices to honor and celebrate the lives of their passed loved ones. Some of these practices and sacred spaces are seen today, for instance, ancestral altars, vigils, funerals, gravesites, sake keep items of the dead, symbolic reference to an animal, etc. 
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"Beyond the Veil" focuses on the metaphysical aspect of reconnecting with those who are no longer with us. The work uses ideas of Totemism, the belief that one can have a mystical relationship with a spiritual being, plant, or animal through the symbolic reference to the dove. A common sacred animal across cultures that is used as a transformative symbol of the process of death. Death is transforming from one's physical body to one's spiritual body. I use the bird as a symbolic reference to how I perceive my ancestors. I perceive them as spiritual beings of transcendence which can take on the form of the bird to symbolize just that. 
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"Beyond the Veil" speaks of the veil as a sacred space that can not only be a physical space, as discussed in the previous paragraph, but one that is also not physical.