THE FINE ART OF GRIEVING: A Memoir
by author-artist Jane Edberg
is an illustrated memoir about an artist who has lost her son and how she uses art performance and photography to create an unconventional pathway through grief to a stronger, wiser self, and a life worth living.
Written in lyrical prose, Jane explores resilience, transformation of self, and the power of art to process meaning from loss—she also takes the reader on a deep dive into an artist’s imagination as she journeys through unconscious grieving to grieving with wild-minded intent.
Excerpts from The Fine Art of Grieving:
“Grief is an unstoppable train.”
“Through the floor, a distant quaking of steel rolling across rails announced an approaching train. We both stopped silent as a thump-clatter trembled the house. Outside the window, above the fence line, a blur of boxcars sped by, screeching. A horn blasted. We looked at each other, shoulders to our ears. The horn blasted again. I shut my eyes and threw my head side to side. Can art be made after losing a child? Will art save me from this grief?”
Jane leaned into grief compelled to explore and process of her loss with a wild mind, like an animal mother who smells, tastes, touches, and repositions her lifeless offspring. The train tracks where her son died, his ashes, his belongings, their photographs, flowers, the places they loved, became her materials. Jane’s camera served as a tool for documentation, and self-observation.
The creative process has informed Jane about death, loss, and put her in touch with her new relationship to Nanda, to who she was, who they were, and who she is now.
TESTIMONIES
“The Fine Art of Grieving is a strong brave book about the hell a person can go through and survive. I am deeply impressed and inspired by Jane Edberg’s writing and her actions and her determination and her art.”
- Abigail Thomas, author of Still Life at Eighty: The Next Interesting Thing
“The Fine Art of Grieving is unique in the world of books. Its deep and brilliant exploration of loss and recovery is heightened in beauty and illumination by wondrous, accompanying photographs.”
- Marion Roach Smith, author of The Memoir Project: A Thoroughly Non-Standardized Text for Writing & Life
“Grief is not just an emotion, but a rupture in life that never fully heals and yet creates positive transformations. You can’t reason it away, and yet art can take it to a place where you can reflect on it in your heart. Jane Edberg shows you in beautiful language and visual art how to apply a healing alchemy when tragedy visits you. Reading her story may help you live through and beyond whatever challenges life offers you.”
- Thomas Moore, author of Care of the Soul and Soul Therapy
"The Fine Art of Grieving is the most honest, profound, beautifully written, and shockingly illustrated account of the grieving process I’ve ever witnessed. Absolutely brilliant! I cannot find the words to match this artist's, mother’s riveting memoir. I have served fifty years researching and writing about the arts and humanities to promote death education for medical personnel and the general public. Jane’s memoir says so much more about grief than all my “colleague experts.” Even for the most experienced therapists among us, her memoir should be required reading for professionals in the field of dying, death, and bereavement. More importantly, her book is a must read for anyone, as we will all, at some point, experience traumatic loss and grief. Jane’s words and images offer us hope as she leads us through a transformative healing process.” - Sandra Bertman, PhD, Fellow in Thanatology, author of Facing Death: images, Insights, and Interventions; Grief and the Healing Arts: Creativity as Therapy
“Jane’s approach to processing grief, both through her art and writing, is beautiful and harrowing. The rawness of emotion and the intentionality of how this story is told provides the reader a unique experience that all stories of grief should strive for: a chance for us to sit with sadness that also confronts the strangely personal ways grief consumes us.”
- Nathan Shuherk, TikTok-booktok Influencer, @schizophrenicreads