The Velvet Narrative
A journey through love, loss, resilience, and the art of becoming.
The Physics of the Soul
A collection of narrative symbolism exploring grief, memory, and resilience—each piece a chapter in the ongoing act of becoming.
The ORIGIN
Mom
Acrylic on canvas, 2026
A visual translation of my written work, “Mom.” The aftermath of loss – the moment the body reforms after rupture, forever altered yet still holding.
Mom
He hobbled closer with the explicitness of their loss and the nuclei settled within the acid of her belly
the neutrons split
her essence abruptly and ferociously exploded from within its vessel. It billowed up and outward into a huge, ominous cloud of those floating particles that are only visible through the sharp, reflected beams of the sun…
The atoms lingered there for long moments before brutally imploding back together within their husk.
And though the particles reformed, they were no longer whole. Many pieces were missing, left floating in the atmosphere.
What remained intact was instantly imprisoned within a distinct desolation. A vast and unbearable place where the darkened, emptiness encompassed her in a silence so piercing that it wrenched the air from her lungs and caused indefinable fear and confusion.
It dropped her to her knees with such excruciating agony that only the primal keens of a thousand ancient ancestors were able to form a voice to express it…
This — when your father’s face revealed to her your death.
Tammy S in loving memory of Larry Brown
THE STORM
Grief & Resilience
Storms of Grief (Diptych)
Acrylic on canvas, 2025
Infused with the strength of a million broken hearts, connected throughout time and space by a pain and sorrow that is hermetically sealed off from the rest of the world and all other experiences.”
The Storm is where my art began: not in technique, but in survival. After the loss of my son Larry, that language first took shape through poetry and prose. Over time, it evolved into visual form — but its origin has always been the same. What started as a way to stay afloat became a language, and that language became my work.
Portraiture
Darrin Brown
Charcoal and acrylic on linen board, 2020.
Embodying profound resilience, wisdom beyond his years, and honest love. He is both heart and strength — my anchor, my son, my survival..
Jasean Tomlin
Graphite and oil pencils on linen board, 2021
A portrait of love, loyalty, and presence, Darrin’s brother, my nephew.
These portraits mark the beginning of another emotional chapter — one shaped not by loss, but by the people who stood beside me through it. They honor the relationships that held me steady when the world felt unsteady. These works are not just likenesses; they are tributes to the steady, grounding force of love.
These are the people who kept me tethered to myself.
In this chapter, we recognize the faces that stood beside us in the fire. These portraits hold the quiet strength and presence of those who remained when everything else changed.
Midnight Grief
Self-portrait, Widowed
Graphite and acrylic on smooth board, 2021
Painted weeks after my husband’s death. Grief comes in waves; sometimes she waits for the quiet hours, slipping in on a midnight tide when the world is still and the heart can no longer hold its own weight.
Forged
Acrylics on canvas board, 2025.
A meditation on resilience and transformation — strength shaped in fire and spirit, born from the quiet decision to rise again.
Rose Quinene
Graphite and oil pencils on Strathmore smooth, 2020
Love, light, and heart. My Babygirl.
Where Peace Blossoms and Love Remembers
Acrylic on canvas, 2026
Where Peace Blossoms and Love Remembers is a companion to the earlier portrait of Rose. This piece extends beyond a single moment into a space shaped by love and presence. Within a quiet garden of light and warmth, memory softens into peace, and connection continues beyond what can be seen.
Together, these works reflect both who she was… and the place where she still lives.