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Trillium Grieving Project: Illustration and Storyboards

Trillium Grieving Project: Illustration and Storyboards

My name is Aleksandra Rodneva, and I am a multidisciplinary artist with a passion for creating visual artwork. Traditional, mixed media and digital drawing and painting are her primary practises, with an extra interest in 2D animation, storyboarding, comic and illustration.

For this project I created illustration and storyboards based on provided nurses diaries. Me and my teammates were provided with journal entries, describing the experiences of nurses who took care of seriously ill and dying children, their observations and feelings. Our goal was to create an emphasis on emotions, as well as creating clear and accurate visual story.

"What if?"

"I cannot imagine all the torturous thoughts that these parents must cycle through on these long in-between days. Especially with babies, there are often circumstances that create a lot of how and why questions. Someone told me that there was a study done about grief and suffering, and how grief can often become unresolved and complicated for families when there are too many "what if" questions. With many diseases- cancer, viruses, metabolic or genetic diseases- it's kind of just this weird chance thing. Sometimes there are what ifs about treatment choices, or what really caused the disease, but they're pretty limited. Many of our babies come in with birth injuries, which means something went wrong in labor, and this causes a million "what ifs" or congenital diseases, where I find many mothers question every single decision made in pregnancy. The sushi? The one drink before I knew I was pregnant? That hot tub? Etc. So I really feel so sad for these parents, where they have this compounding difficulty of having so many really awful things to think through and grieve about, and pretty much unlimited time to circle around in these thoughts. I can't imagine how unbearable that must be." -Monique, nurse

"Holding on"

"This family will likely have months with their baby, and it is not at all possible to maintain that kind of intensity over that period of time. I find there is usually a pattern where families of dying babies start by snuggling and staring at their babies all day (much like parents of freshly born babies). But as time marches on, the rhythms of life get harder to ignore, and at some point, you have to be thrust back into that rhythm. People need to eat, sleep, bathe, get fresh air, etc. and carry on with life, even though they only have a limited time with their baby. So families kind of settle into a new rhythm in the interim period, and then near the end, they kind of return to that same cocooning, and each minute becomes precious and important to spend with their baby." - Monique, nurse

Line art

Simple color

Painterly style

Connection

I have also observed a 12 to13 year-old sibling who is a beautiful example of a loving,

caring sibling relationship. Every day when she wakes up, she goes into her ailing

sibling’s room to touch him say, “Good morning!”. Though the younger sibling does not

have the ability to talk, the response is great! Then she gets ready for school and goes

back to the ailing sibling’s room to say; “Goodbye, I’ll be back after school.” She then

tickles him, gets a great response and leaves for school.

Then after school, she comes, washes her hands and greets her brother cheerfully, asks

him how his day was (although she doesn’t expect a direct response from him – the nurse

will let her know); without rushing, she talks to him for a while and tickles him to make

him smile & laugh. She seems to have a divinely gifted natural balance. Her extended

family try and make time to go out/spend time with her. - Venus

Spaces

The kitchen in hospice

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