Taking Shape - Dee Wolff

Dee Wolff
Houston, Texas

The imagery in my artwork always derives directly from my life experience. I never quite know exactly how an experience will be translated into an image, as there is a process of fluid transformation which takes place within my subconscious self. In my artistic process I allow the images to flow from my brush or pen, and then try to understand the work when it is finished.

I began this work in grief after my Mother’s death in December 1997. Her old button box became a symbol of her passing, a coffin, and a receptacle of eighty-two years of experience and memory. The ships on the box seemed so appropriate – an an image of dying and sailing away to another place… to whatever awaits us. I kept asking, “What happens next?”

I worked on this series for three and a half years. It grew from the first gouache into many black and white drawings, several large triptychs and a final small drawing which I titled BUTTON BOX MEMORIES: SAIL AWAY, HERE… AT THIS HOUR… LIGHT BREAKS. I finished this series in 2001. I consider it a mapping of grief.








				Button Box Memories: Sail Away #3, 4 & 5 gouache, paper
			Dee Wolff Houston, Texas The imagery in my artwork always derives directly from my life experience. I never quite know exactly how an experience will be translated into an image, as there is a process of fluid transformation which takes place within my subconscious self. In my artistic process I allow the images to flow from my brush or pen, and then try to understand the work when it is finished. I began this work in grief after my Mother’s death in December 1997. Her old button box became a symbol of her passing, a coffin, and a receptacle of eighty-two years of experience and memory. The ships on the box seemed so appropriate – an an image of dying and sailing away to another place… to whatever awaits us. I kept asking, “What happens next?” I worked on this series for three and a half years. It grew from the first gouache into many black and white drawings, several large triptychs and a final small drawing which I titled BUTTON BOX MEMORIES: SAIL AWAY, HERE… AT THIS HOUR… LIGHT BREAKS. I finished this series in 2001. I consider it a mapping of grief.