Terrill Welch Gallery Pod from Terrill Welch

Artist notes: The title ‘The Long Goodbye’ is frequently used in reference to living with someone who has dementia and experiencing how they slowly lose their ability to think, communicate and control their bodily functions. The loss is relentless in its grief and continuity, frequently taking years to complete its cycle towards death. This painting is about a similar process in relationship to our planet as it slowly loses its ability to support human and animal life. The data and our own experiences record the physical changes. It is then up to each of us to find our emotional path while knowing we may not have the capacity to come to terms with what is before us. In my figurative and abstract rendering of a Salish Sea tidal pool, I have asked myself to brush, push, slide and scrap my way forward while letting go of any specific outcome, both for the canvas and for living in these beautiful broken moments.