process of healing them.

GAIN DISGUISED AS LOSS

Art is the act of structuring time. “Look at it this way,” a
piece of art says. “Here’s how I see it.” As my waggish
friend the novelist Eve Babitz remarks, “It’s all in the
frame.” This is particularly true when what we are dealing
with is an artistic loss. Every loss must always be viewed as
a potential gain; it’s all in the framing.
Every end is a beginning. We know that. But we tend to
forget it as we move through grief. Struck by a loss, we
focus, understandably, on what we leave behind, the lost
dream of the work’s successful fruition and its buoyant
reception. We need to focus on what lies ahead. This can be
tricky. We may not know what lies ahead. And, if the
present hurts this badly, we tend to view the future as
impending pain.

I   cannot  expect  even    my  own art to  provide all of  the

answers—only     to  hope    it  keeps   asking  the     right

questions.

GRACE   HARTIGAN