Saudade
Saudade is a Portuguese word that is used to describe an intense longing and deep melancholy that accompanies the absence of a person or time and place that is loved and irretrievably lost. I learned this word during my tome in Portugal, and it encompasses a kind of beauty as well as the sadness and ache of loss. The work in the series Saudade uses painted and embroidered found photos on canvas, framed in hand-dyed linen sourced from antique French bed sheets, to try and reflect some of the nuance and complexity of the feelings the word Saudade describes.