Coral Illustrations

In the fall of 2016, scientists pronounced the Great Barrier Reef Dead. An obituary was written for the Reef, and I was inspired by this to make a prayer card for it. I was raised Catholic, and in my household, we had a collection of prayer cards handed out at funerals. My father found these beautiful, and in turn so did I.

Typically, on the front of prayer cards is a saint or holy figure, and on the back is a prayer.

I began illustrating individual coral pieces as part of a prayer card project, but I became so infatuated with the corals themselves, I never followed through on the prayer part.

To me, I think this is where I started to come to the reality that the art I make is deeply entwined with the part of my humanity that holds empathy. I recognized a long time ago that a funeral is a uniquely human way that we come together to grieve the loss of a loved one, and I wanted to grant that affordance to our coral friends.