Hope (2018) by Abbie Hernandez

Watercolor on Yupo
16”h x 16”w

This series of paper studies emerged through watching my father as he moved into dementia. His world became defined by small, recurring actions: folding cloth, tearing paper, crumpling wrappers. These gestures, stripped of narrative, became a language of form and focus. The current series draws directly from these actions. Folded, torn, and crumpled materials serve as the basis for studies that, while visually minimal, carry layers of accumulated gesture. Repetition plays a central role—not only in the imagery but in the making itself—evoking the rhythm of daily practice and the looping
patterns of memory. What began as a response to a singular, personal experience has since developed into a sustained, daily practice. Over time, the work has shifted from a direct reflection of that moment to a broader investigation into how we carry loss
across time, space, and form. Through repeated engagement with material - folding, drawing, marking - I explore the mechanics of memory and loss: how it fragments, distills, repeats, and reshapes itself. This process allows for a continued relationship with absence that is not fixed in mourning, but embedded in routine. The gestures I render are no longer only my father’s—they become archetypal, formal, abstract. Practiced as a daily meditation on the universal condition of carrying loss, these drawings form a
bridge between past and present, and become a means of mindfulness, a way to hold grief without being consumed by it.

http://abbiehernandez.com/

@abigailgroff