Living with Dying: Grief, Loss, Beauty and Joy
(left) Heartspace, mixed media, 9.5 x 8 inches, 2019
(right) Waiting In The Beauty Of It All, mixed media on canvas with poetry, 36 x 36 inches, 2021
Andrea Saccone Snyder is a mixed media artist and full-time 3rd generation Beauty Maker, leaving art school 30 years ago to train for a career as a hairstylist/colorist. Andrea continued to make her art any chance she could while raising her son and operating a successful salon in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Andrea's art is uniquely infused with all the experiences and stories of the many people she has had the pleasure of laying her hands on in the beauty-making chair, in this role Andrea has witnessed all of life's joys, sorrows and everything in between as reflected in her art. She recently published a book containing more of her original art about self-care behind the chair. The Mindful Beauty Makers Little Book of Wisdom Available on Amazon.
About Waiting in the Beauty of it All Andrea writes:
Gone.
The sadness will swallow you, and too it shall make you whole.
Waiting in the beauty of it all.
The darkness is vast, murky and dense, just for now.
Weep no more for sweet is their sleep.
You contain the vastness of your wildest imaginings.
Just for today.
Like shards being ripped from the middle of me.
Long dark nights.
Just one thing.
You will walk in good company.
To be held.
Accidental smiles.
Strangers.
Taken away.
Laughter in the other room.
Alone.
Together.
Choice.
The dawn.
Again, and again, and again.
Gold.
Heartspace was chosen as the cover art for Heartspace: Real Life Stories on Death and Dying an anthology editied by Cathy Brooks Edwards. About Heartspace Cathy writes:
Andrea’s art embodies what I had envisioned as a welcoming image to the book's deep contents. The Artist's depiction is a sturdy container, yet has a softness to the edges, and a quality of aliveness to its heart shaped form. It is a container within which these heartfelt, heartbreaking and heart expanding stories can simultaneously abide - the winged one as the messenger and symbol of hope.