AFTER DEATH

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This project draws from personal experiences of loss — the illness and death of my father. Caring for him in those final months brought me closer to him than ever before. He had always been strong and guarded, and allowing me to see him vulnerable and fragile was, I believe, the most courageous thing he ever did. In those moments I discovered that death can be as beautiful as it is devastating.

 

In my family, Russian and Georgian heritage blend together, and embroidery — traditionally practiced by women — became my way of processing grief and revisiting memory. In the embroidery I combine ornaments from both cultures, alongside images of my father's favorite plants.

 

The goat appears in my embroidery as my first memory of death — not a traumatic one, but a meaningful ritual. Watching an animal be slaughtered as a child during a Georgian family celebration, I understood even then that it served a purpose: to nourish and honor the family.

This project is an act of transformation — where sorrow softens into tenderness, and separation dissolves into connection.