November featured Artist

Kelly Winslade

Title:  A Celebration of life 2015 
Medium: plywood, acrylic paint, glitter, discarded cemetery flowers

Location: Premier Art Supplies

Artist statement

My body of work is an exploration into the subject of death, in particular, our incapability, as human beings, of accepting it. We fear death, see it as a threat and associate it with negative connotations. This, in turn, causes us to defer it from our thoughts and conversations, leaving us unprepared for when this inevitable event eventually catches up on us. In response to this, my body of work focuses on encouraging acknowledgment and healthy conversation of death, in the hope that death will eventually become accepted by human beings and consequently improve the quality of our lives. In response to this, A Celebration of Life focuses on disguising death as a celebration of life, in an attempt to change Western culture’s attitudes towards death. It aims to help people cope with death and ease the grieving process by adopting attitudes and customs demonstrated by other cultures, such as the Mexican culture and their Day of the Dead celebration. Through the use of bright colours and glitter, I have created a contemporary funeral where coffins are brightly decorated and flowers are abundant.