Unmoored by the losses from the pandemic, I found that making art and finding spiritual resources steadied me. I was inspired by a line from Psalms-- “God, put my tears in Your bottle.” With so much grief for all of us over the past two years, I loved the sense that our tears were worth saving.

But a glass container seemed the wrong material, too hard, like our culture’s hardheartedness toward grief. Why not, instead, a container to meet and hold our tears and grief with soft acceptance? And so I made felted woolen vessels, including the largest one shown above. Each is an artistic prayer, an invitation to hold grief with softness instead of hard-heartedness.