She was editing her first novel while taking chemo.  Our personal lives had become very small between the brain fog and the rewrites.  She inspired me to explore as many worlds of color as I could find in a single stucco wall of the house.  Our discussions, as artists, shifted between the success of her book and exploring my images that would not blend with color. 
After her passing, I returned to the wall to finish our conversation.  The images we had talked about became Passage; a meditation on the presence of her absence.  The project spoke without color, far from its original intent. The black and white images of Passage coalesced into a language of light to find my way back.

With time, the colors returned and defined Release, bringing the project full cycle to its original conceit.  Transformed by forgiveness and acceptance, luminous layers now blend with fresh colors sampled photographically from my new garden.  With a palette of sweet peas, iris, dahlias, and English rose, I can embrace her absence, grateful for her presence that lingers within my life.

The Presence of Absence

Woman enters the exhibition of "The Presence of Absence"
Woman viewing a large print of "Goners" in the "Presence of Absence" exhibit

Sasse Museum of Art, May 1 - June 27, 2026

Color images using colors sampled from flowers of my new garden. At the "Presence of Absence" exhibition

Sasse Museum of Art, May 1 - June 27, 2026

Sasse Museum of Art, May 1 - June 27, 2026

“I reached across this portal using the language of light we had shared. These syllables, words, and phrases became my passage and my release.”

John Hesketh

This was our white stucco wall used for The Presence of Absence

The Presence of Absence is a quiet, probing video about what remains as artist John Hesketh creates a portal with light on a stucco wall of their family home to complete his conversations with his late wife, Peggy. Meditative and formally restrained, it highlights the emotional and conceptual textures of loss and grief.

The Presence of Absence: My Passage


6 Black and White images that represent my deepest passage through grief

In Syllables

In Words

In Phrases

Sasse Museum of Art, May 1 - June 27, 2026

The Presence of Absence: My Release


Four colorful Images of gratitude that is my release in the "Presence of Absence" exhibit

In Syllables

In Words

In Phrases

Sasse Museum of Art, May 1 - June 27, 2026

The Presence of Absence: My Passage


Black and white smaller square images that are grouped 3x3

Point of View Gallery, December 2024

In Syllables

In Words

In Phrases

The Presence of Absence: My Passage


In Syllables

In Words

In Phrases

Sase Art Museum, May 1 - June 27, 2026