This was not an emotionally easy piece to work on. It involved telling the story of Amy, whose husband Evan died due to extreme heat at age 32. The piece was part of a project called Stolen Summers, which was organized by Extreme Weather Survivors and aimed to tell the stories of those affected by extreme weather.

Amy first sent me several photos of her and Evan. I chose to work with their wedding photo. I replaced Evan with an empty, red silhouette that fades away at the bottom. This symbolizes Evan’s absence and the feeling of someone fading away from your life, an inevitable accompaniment to loss. A simple red circle evokes the deathly hot sun, and a yellow sun-like ray cuts through Evan. In the background, I put a quote from Amy recounting her experience of hearing about Evan’s death, along with key details from their story.

The group gave me free rein on this project. I discussed the concept with Amy, but was not required to do sketches. This final work traveled around the country with the Stolen Summers art show and made stops in Astor Place in New York City, Asheville, Austin, and LA.