Ninette Larson
“We are a culture that doesn’t talk about grief,” says collage artist Ninette Larson, a grief educator and counselor with 35 years of experience. Larson cites various reasons why it has become difficult to grieve. “Society puts pressure on us to heal quickly from our loss, and we don’t feel encouraged to share our experience. Many of us have been sheltered from the process of dying through reliance on other caregivers. We feel uncomfortable talking about divorce or separation and hold the feelings inside. We need a safe place to explore our grief.”
Larson uses collage and the creative process to create a safe place for individuals to explore their thoughts and feelings about loss and grief, thoughts that may bring deep and powerful emotions to the surface. She will talk about the personal implications of unprocessed grief at a program at Arts Benicia on November 8, from 11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m., during the run of an exhibition titled Where the Spirit Meets the Bone: Grief and Healing, which opens on October 25. “Participants will have an opportunity to ask questions, but no one has to do or say anything,” she assures. “It’s an opportunity to learn.”
Born in the Bay Area, Larson has been involved in the creative arts all her life. She graduated from San Francisco State University with a major in Theatre Arts, acting, directing, and designing stagecraft. After graduation, she participated in art and craft shows and festivals for twelve years, selling original fiber arts and weaving items incorporating feathers and other unusual materials. She hand-dyed and silkscreened her own fabric to make children’s clothing, borrowing designs and colors from antique children’s books. Her works were popular, and she had a significant following.
The death of her son from SIDS in 1986 at six months changed everything. She enrolled in graduate studies at JFK University in Orinda and Pleasant Hill to study psychology. She wanted to help others navigate healthy grief and was the first graduate of a new grief specialization in that program. After graduation, she worked at Hope Hospice in Dublin for eight years in their child and family program. She has provided hundreds of grief programs and workshops in public schools, through grant projects, and in her private psychotherapy practice in Walnut Creek.
In 2015, Larson picked up her art practice again, studying collage and paper-making techniques with Erin McCluskey Wheeler in Richmond, and later, during the pandemic, online via Zoom with Arts Benicia. “That was my first real art education,” she asserts. “I have always loved collage work.” Her brightly colorful and often abstract collages utilize her own hand-painted paper and explore both monochromatic ideas and color contrasts through shapes and patterns. She also uses images and text from magazines and other sources. “Most of my collages have not yet been glued down,” she laughs, suggesting that the process is more rewarding than the outcome. Two of Ninette’s collages, Hidden, and The Essence of Grief, will be represented in Arts Benicia’s exhibition.
On November 22, she will offer a collaged book-making class at Arts Benicia as an activity for individuals to honor their feelings of grief, as well as to articulate the process of healing. “All types of art involve the expression of feelings by the artist,” she says, linking her art practice to her counseling work. “Using collage in grief work is another way of processing feelings. Unprocessed grief can close us off to being fully alive, or to our relationships. There are people who don’t know how much they are still affected by a major loss they experienced 30 years ago, a loss in their childhood, or a loss that nobody is acknowledging. People can get stuck in a lifelong depression, anger or substance abuse from left over powerful feelings. It can go undercover and lay dormant for years, only to be opened by a new loss, exposing the old unprocessed losses in its wake.”
Larson’s exercise involves exploring what life looked like before and after the loss, using words and images. Individual pages also address what contributes to healing the individual, and future goals. “I think if you visit the gallery exhibition after taking this class, you will be more open to responding to the artwork, and the show will affect your heart.”
To see more of Ninette Larson’s artwork, visit @ninettelarsoncollageart on Instagram; and to learn more about her grief work and upcoming workshops, visit http://bit.ly/3VLActL and artsbenicia.org
