November 2015 at TEDxIndianaUniversity, Painter Alyssa Monks talks about how her loss changed her art and the way that she sees her art. Starting off, Alyssa talks to us a bit about her background. She introduces us to the idea of her mother being a “super mom” always taking her to every art class near where they lived. She gives us a glimpse, a taste of her young art. Her first pieces of people in safe vulnerable states and places.
She then goes on to tell us about when her mother got diagnosed with cancer. She tells us of how she tried her best to find ways to fight the cancer, but ended up realizing that that was not what her mother needed and that if she got so obsessed with trying to find ways to fight the inevitable she would end up wasting all the time she had left with her mother.
“If I tried to fix it I would miss it.”
She decided that she needed to be there for her mother in her last moments, not trying to make her healthy again, and trying to stop the inevitable, but giving her the best last moments she could, and spending all that time with her.
“The safe places that I created in my paintings, it was a myth, and I was afraid because I didn’t want to paint anymore.”
But finally, she tells us of how she found a new way of interweaving her feelings, with her curiosity, and making amazing art out of the process.