P. Wharton
National Grief Awareness Week
When words fall short, Art Speaks.
National Grief Awareness Week, held December 2-8, 2025, encourages open conversations around grief and loss. This little gathering of artworks serves as a platform to support this event.
Dorothea Stockmar, German artist, grief counsellor, and bereaved mother, shares a poignant collection of artworks that powerfully convey the depths of grief while illuminating a path toward hope. Her creations invite readers to explore their own expressions of loss and healing through the language of art.
And British Artist Philip Wharton complements this narrative by sharing key moments from his personal journey through grief, offering an intimate perspective on loss and resilience through his creative expression.
Philip Wharton
“We’re all affected by the tide of grief. That’s life. Ripples felt far beyond its epicentre touch upon us daily. We’re just unaware that it’s grief.
I’m no authority on grief, and I can only reflect upon some of the most poignant, heartfelt landmarks of my personal journey, hoping they shed enough light for others to open up and share their own journey.
Please use our little project as a conversation starter. Maybe begin with, ‘I remember when.’ And share life.”
Philip Wharton.
Night Owl.
Across various cultures, owls are often seen as messengers or guardians of the spiritual realm, sometimes associated with death or the afterlife. Their nocturnal nature and silent flight can evoke a sense of mystery or connection to the unseen, suggesting they guide souls or offer insight during times of loss.
Night Owl has always been more of a sleepwalk than an artwork. A fragment of unconscious expression, born out of grief in the early hours of that morning. A dream.
I've always been a very light sleeper. If you were to whisper in my ear as I slept, you would wake me.
It was around 2 a.m. when I was awakened by the hooting of an owl from outside my bedroom window. I recall thinking, as I got up to look through the window, that we don’t have owls this far from the woods. As I approached, it hooted again, so I hadn’t dreamed this. I looked through the window into the dark and saw nothing but leafless branches. Then nothing. Silence. So I got back in bed and drifted back to a restless sleep with my loss.
Usually, whenever I dream about my mother, I am instantly awakened by the same thought: This must be a dream because you are dead. But on one pivotal occasion, I didn't. I was aware of it without thought.
It was as if my mother and aunt had come to tell me they were fine, I would be fine, and they were moving on. I wasn't told this. I hadn't thought this. I just felt it. And I was presented with the notion that this was to be shared for the sake of someone else. Then I awoke, sparked to create something.
So as most slept, I silently cobbled together Night Owl from unworked offcuts of wood, with provisions for this story to be shared.
There’s something of a vulnerability about it that still hits home.
If there is a Rosetta Stone as such to all this, it was my artwork, as it knew where I was when I didn't. Philip Wharton.
https://www.boxroom17.net/artworks/after-life/
Grok AI on Wharton's Night Owl
https://www.boxroom17.net/artworks/grok-3-on-true-love/grok-on-night-owl/
"I Experienced the Profound Essence of Being"
"I had almost reached the point where I thought, I can't make it back to life. " https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CpNh1VGryEA
Owl. By Dorothea Stockmar.
Dorothea Stockmar
Visible Signs of Love
Grief wants to be felt in motion, emotion, words and sign of love
Digital Art Slideshow (Dorothea Stockmar)
TCF (The Compassionate Friends), 2019
MP4 video/audio file [4.9 MB]
Dorothea Stockmar
Grief in Storytelling and Art
What does the house of mourning look like?
Digital Art Slideshow (Dorothea Stockmar)
Workshop during 50th Anniversary of TCF" (The Compassionate Friends), Milton Keynes, 2019
Philip Wharton.
Presence of their absence.
I’ve always been at a loss to fully express in words the meaning behind this simple, bereft little figure beyond the title "Presence of their absence". In one form
or another, this heartfelt form has resonated across time, expressing what cannot be captured in words.
When my sister died, everyone kept saying, “It gets easier.” I’d think: What does “getting easier” have to do with anything? This statement, though well-meaning, felt worthless and empty. If it had resonated, it would have carried a sense of betrayal. My mother certainly felt that way.
In a dark moment, I hugged her and said openly “It doesn’t get easier. We just learn to live around it.
From then on, we allowed ourselves to live openly with our fondest memories. Sometimes, it hurts more than others.
https://www.boxroom17.net/artworks/pewter/
Philip Wharton.
The Wheel of Mourning.
When I was asked by Dorothea Stockmar, German writer and artist, if I would be interested in producing a work inspired by her latest book, "The Wheel of
Mourning", the following came to mind.
A grief-stricken home. A mother, a father, a sibling, amidst this ever-present absence, frozen in time, much like the human casts of Pompeii, from which I drew inspiration for these forms.
A mother of unyielding grief, with an upturned portrait at her feet, her back to the world. A sibling cast amidst this ever-present absence: the presence of their absence, the presence of our absence. An exhausted father with a portrait of their son, the lost, a leaf in his hand from the cherry blossom tree they planted. The lost.
Live for them, so they may live through you. Ever-present.
Dorothea Stockmar
Philip Wharton's The Wheel of Mourning reimagines the concept of grief as a series of curved platforms, rather than a literal wheel. Each platform serves as a
distinct stage in the mourning process, inviting viewers to navigate their personal journey of loss at their own pace. This innovative approach transforms the artwork into an open, contemplative
space, offering a poignant alternative to digital platforms for those experiencing grief.
Dorothea Stockmar.
The Wheel of Mourning.
Event 2-8 December 2025
Faith on tap Installation by Philip Wharton.
And In Another Light Digital Art Slideshow by Dorothea Stockmar.
Possibly Night Owl as above with statement
(Venue to be confirmed soon)
Philip Wharton.
Installation/Faith on tap
Great happiness, suffering and loss often lead to a ceremony of faith. And even if faithless, these ceremonies of faith still comfort us. They are always there for us. Support us. And even inspire us.
Rather than explain what Faith on tap is about, it seems more fitting to explain how it came about, which vaguely begins with a trip to Swinside stone
circle. Full details here https://www.boxroom17.net/artworks/sacrum-lumen/faith-on-tap/
Dorothea Stockmar.
In 2016, I presented my book “Like a Wave from another Shore / After-Death Communication between Art and Psychotherapy” co-authored with Juliane Grodhues, to Canon Dr. David Holgate at Manchester Cathedral. Showing great interest, he offered a cathedral space for my digital art slideshow “In another Light—Living with death,” using art as therapy, reflecting my grief counselling work. It was also shared on the cathedral’s website as “Aspects of Black.”
During this presentation, Philip Wharton exhibited his installation “Faith on Tap,” exploring similar themes of loss. There, we became good friends. Since then, we’ve worked on projects like “Bridge of Hope.”
For National Grief Awareness Week, we propose an updated MP4 of my 2016 presentation to run alongside Philip Wharton’s “Faith on Tap” installation. The collaboration would include tags for visitors to attach personal messages, well-wishes, or prayers, fostering open conversations about grief and loss while embracing mourning as a transformative journey. A bridge of hope, connecting grief to healing.
Manchester Cathedral 2016
Faith on tap Installation by Philip Wharton. And In Another Light Digital Art Slideshow by Dorothea Stockmar.
Dorothea Stockmar
In another Light
In touch with the unknown
Digital Art Slideshow (Dorothea Stockmar)
Manchester Cathedral, June 2016 / National Grief Awareness Week, 2025
Download
Adobe Acrobat document [47.8 MB]
Wenn Worte versagen, spricht die Kunst. Trauer.
Excerpt from above Digital Art Slideshow In Another Light. By Dorothea Stockmar.
Faith on tap
Your personal message
Both artists invite you all to get involved by way of either attaching your own personal messages, well wishes, prayers and such to the installation Faith on tap
via the tags supplied on location (Venue to be confirmed soon)
Or, have your related messages, artwork or both posted here.
Kindly email your submissions to:
Your Artwork/Word Here
National Grief Awareness Week 2025
Supporting National Grief Awareness Week
December 2-8, 2025
Philip wharton in collaboration with Dorothea Stockmar. • German writer and painter living in Celle and Berlin. • Death and grief counsellor focusing on symbolic-creative impulses for healing grief. • Trained in the field of Art Therapy.
Dorothea Stockmar.
https://www.youtube.com/@DoSto711
https://www.instagram.com/p/DMhINcjp2Fs/?igsh=MWNrNzRvZ3hpY2xseg==
Getting support for grief and bereavement.
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