Ghosts (And Other Manifestations of Grief) – A solo exhibition by Aaron Graves

Cottonwood Center for the Arts is proud to host a collection by artist Aaron Graves for the month of October.

Graves is a creative force whose talents span across a range of mediums - photography, fashion design and fabrication, and mixed media. Graves’ work has a haunting ability to evoke emotion, with captivating deliberacy of content, intent, and execution.

From the artist:

Grief is a complicated affair and its often messy history with humanity has led to seemingly endless methods of dealing with it. While the widely acknowledged 7 stages of grief has attempted to corral and explain what we are going through, it seems for myself (and for that matter numerous other people I’m acquainted with) that they don't always seem to happen in the order they are presented. But this isn’t really the main focus of why we’re here. Though its important to acknowledge those stages, I’ve put together a study that instead focuses on another manifestation of grief: ghosts.

Ghosts are omnipresent though not always mentioned during the grieving process. They also don’t even have to be the concept of a literal spirit, they can be memories, items left behind, people who haven’t even passed yet seem to have stopped existing… In other words, the ghosts are an absence and a void that isn’t easy to fill, or even come to terms with. But recognition of them can be key in understanding how humans grieve and how we can begin to go through that process…

We invite you to come experience this installation and enjoy two floors of open studios + galleries this
First Friday from 5-8 pm, and all month during normal business hours.