Homage to Imogen
The loss of my granddaughter Imogen in 2018 was the most impactful experience of my life. It nearly killed me. I survived each day as the creative process transformed my grief into sustainable moments, and I dedicate the art on this page to her joyful laugh, her silky skin, her bubbly flowing hair, her graceful and elegant movements, her hauntingly melodic voice, her depth of feeling, her naughty wit, her biting sarcasm, and her playful imagination.
In this installation “The Last Time I Ironed Her Dress” the ironing board, made from wood, cardboard, muslin, and rope, is over 10 feet long, 5 feet high, and there are 12 children’s dresses draped from the 4 foot steel wire hanger above.
When the Wave Comes to Haunt
When the wave comes
it’s not an ordinary daily
ebb and flow—
birds scurrying
chasing microscopic flotsam and jetsam.
It’s not the sunlight
breaking into indigo, yellow and red
through droplets of dew
When the wave comes
it’s not continuous
like the trumpets lament
up down in out
around and through—
Not macro nor micro
an immeasurable wake
too much energy to calculate.
When the wave comes
like Kanagawa’s great tsunami
rising reaching covering,
a patchwork quilt —
each square a snapshot;
Blind and breathless
the world dies
as each wave
comes to haunt me —
I float on tears to survive.
Elisa de la Roche
