Letting Go - Sue Kelman

Watercolor Collage
38" x 30"
 
In the summer of 2021 I had to leave my home for several months while remediation work was being done. It was an unsettling time and I was very alone, due to life circumstances as well as Covid. I walked it off day after day and found myself taking pictures of urban flowers, so surprisingly beautiful despite their dusty locations in little plots of dirt behind Walmart, flourishing next to curbs, struggling in parking lots. Back at the Extended Stay America where I and my Instant Pot were channeling my inner homeless nomad, I fought depression and painted the flowers with my traveling water-based markers on small pages. Doodled really. One day after my return home, I cut out the flowers like paper dolls and dumped them in a pile on my dining room table and reflected on the process of breaking down, gathering in, rebuilding and finally letting go. This "rehabilitation collage" celebrates "Letting Go" -- the end of a process that sure as life will repeat itself in other ways at other times, but is a victory for now. Celebrate the jubilation of letting go. Reminder to self: good mental health is a marathon, not a sprint.