A Good Death is a series of paintings and drawings begun in 2015. The images of willow trees in the works are based upon early 19th-century tombstones found throughout New England. The title of the series, A Good Death, refers to the Christian tradition of ars moriendi, or “the art of dying.” This practice, outlined the necessary Christian rituals to prepare for death and put great faith in the virtue of dying surrounded by one’s loved ones, dying at peace with one’s god, and on recording the last words of the dying family member. This practice met its match in the upheaval and violence of the American Civil War, and today seems a distant hope. Did George Floyd have a good death? Did Tamir Rice? Did Sandra Bland?

The notion of a good death was always aspirational. At one time, value was given to the quality and virtue of one’s life and one’s death. But this was always contingent on your means and the virtue of your neighbors.. And still today, lives are dismissed with the swipe of a cell phone page or the changing of a channel. And race, class, nationality, one’s religious or political affiliation, may determine the means by which you meet your end. Death remains cruel.

These are images of reflection.

These are images of grief and anger.

(Note: These photos do not accurately represent these works. They are painted in such close hues and values as to be nearly monochrome. The photographs exaggerate the contrast, are shot in raking light, etc…)