Description

This is the first image in a four-part series that depicts imagery of the Hungry Ghost Festival. In the midst of a spring and summer wherein there were several sudden deaths in my family, I worked through a lot of complex and mixed feelings about both my family of origin and the family I married into. During that time, I began thinking about the contradiction between our instinctive fear and the things we tell ourselves and our family members. If the dead are our family members and they are supposed to care about us, why are we so frightened of them? Could it be that we feel fear because we fear that the dead might punish us for our own bad actions? Or do we know that some of our family members are dangerous to us, and we fear them returning to hurt us once more?

This is for the 11×17.