Transmuting Grief

Artist Shelli Langdale processes the grief over the loss of her horse in a new body of work presented at Abend Gallery in Denver

In his novel, Strider: The Story of a Horse, Leo Tolstoy tells the story of the decline of a Hussar officer from the point of view of his equally aging horse revealing the author’s own concern for mortality. He had written, “Only people who are capable of loving strongly can also suffer great sorrow, but this same necessity of loving serves to counteract their grief and heals them.”Languishing, oil on gallery panel, 36 x 36"

Artist Shelli Langdale works through the grief of losing her beloved horse, Ziggy, through painting. “There was a quiet comfort and connection in my relationship with Ziggy,” she says. “After almost 18 years together, our communication was subtle, effortless. He followed me. I followed him. We no longer argued. An unknowing mentor, he grounded and transformed me, a daily reset into confronting the challenging realities of human existence. So much of who I am I attribute to him. With his absenting, I anticipate the dissolution of fortitude without a metamorphosis. He gave me a purpose. I served at the pleasure. I had been waiting for my moment, an audience of one, in secret, with no applause. I loved him.”Spectre, oil on canvas, 42 x 96"In Corner of your Lovesong, Langdale lies on a sofa gazing out at the empty pasture while Ziggy watches over her, nuzzling her head. Dandelion seed heads, or clocks, fill the foreground.

With a degree in computer science, Langdale has worked for NASA and as an independent web designer. She turned to her first love, painting, in 2014, exploring the ephemerality of relationships. She lives and works in Chattanooga, Tennessee.Corner of Your Lovesong, oil on canvas, 36 x 64"Dissolution, an exhibition of her paintings relating to her loss of Ziggy in 2020, will be shown at Abend Gallery in Denver from January 7 through 25. She comments, “I began creating the paintings for this exhibit long before my anticipated loss, changing the name and the storytelling of Dissolution’s final form as the loss transpired. The works symbolize pieces of me in a storyline of love and pain. They are fragments of grief personified. Memories conflated from a life once lived, a life in dissolution.”On a Flower of Recognized Faces, oil on gallery panel, 16 x 20"Her painting, On a Flower of Recognized Faces, leans more toward abstraction than her other works, a hint to the direction she plans to pursue in the future.