Perceptions of Tragedy investigates the memories associated with a personal, familial tragedy that took place in 2005 when my family and I lost my aunt and cousins in a car accident. By implementing research tools and nuanced artmaking techniques, this project presents itself as a tool for remembering the people who are no longer here with me. This visual and research-based exploration offers an approach to retaining and reimagining “lost- memories” by using different media to reimagine moments, peoples, places, and things. Over the year, Perceptions of Tragedy has served as a tool for remembering through the physicality that painting and printmaking techniques offer. Playing with design and visual art elements has provided me with the flexibility to incorporate nuanced images that I was too young to remember physically. With every brushstroke and swipe of ink across the plate, images are created that enable critical thinking, investigation, and most importantly, promote a sense of healing for myself- that I felt was impossible.

Sabrina Spallacci works with painting, printmaking, textiles, and photography to further analyze the power that art holds in reassembling fragmented memories. Drawing on her own childhood experiences with loss, she investigates how art can act as a tool for healing. By examining critical methods, such as trauma studies, affect, and psychoanalysis, Sabrina looks at how painting can serve as a tool for unpacking memories.