DENISE KUFUS WEYHRICH
Home³: Earth, Heart, Heaven
August 2023
Beautiful Dreamer, Assemblage built on an American songbook.
Home is reaching for something that once was. Home takes on many different meanings.
This entire exhibit is about coming to terms and accepting what home is, letting it be part of my DNA, and in turn, coming to peace with the losses. For me home is a balancing act of accepting loss and living fully in the present, thus trusting those “impossibles” to God.
There are places that I call home because my heart is there and I desire to be there. Being together with friends and family, I immediately find home and belonging. When traveling the moment creates a new home, for I am at home, because friends, family are with me.
Square peg in a round hole, Illuminated antique glass salt shaker on an electrical housing, Bible, and toaster.
Perhaps, like you, COVID redefined “Home” and your sense of belonging. For me, home is any familiar place of gathering, still, during COVID and cancer, home suddenly became a place of isolation. With my folks dying, the concept of home became more of a mystery as each home was emptied. With our kids moving away, home again became distant. With my own journey through cancer, leaving this earthly home became an immediate reality. Upon being given a month to live I kept that news to myself wanting to live well and prepare for leaving this home. (Exactly seven years ago I miraculously was saved from stage 4 ovarian cancer.)
Opening day of Home³.
Home is complex.
These artworks invite you to participate in this search for home. Sweep reflects a homelife with false expectations of life, yet living without regretful disappointment. Spem in Alium, (trust in no other), rejoices in the life lived with trials, while at home on earth yet preparing to let go and move heavenward. It’s truly about living life through terminal cancer and living with a miracle drug chemo drug, Rubraca. The Curtains Parted are daily records of taking Rubraca chemo pills, thus actively living with hope in the present. Conversations with mom provides a platform to return to the den offering a moment to reconnect with childhood. Glorietta Home is that reaching for something that once was my family home and coming to terms with loss.
Home… It’s about the balancing act of living, yet keeping a loose hold on life, while maintaining a meaningful life. Building a home while allowing acceptance of circumstances out of control yet looking heavenward.
Home on this earth
Homeward to heaven
Home in my heart
Or do I belong among all three at once? In Terra Pax
About Denise
Denise Kufus Weyhrich is an artist, curator, and educator in Orange, California. She taught graphic design at California State University at Long Beach and Chapman University in Orange, California, until her retirement in 2004. Weyhrich was the founding professor of the B.F.A. program at Chapman University. Since 2003, she has been the co-curator of SEEDS Fine Art Exhibits, a nonprofit that supports artists of faith by transforming galleries into sacred spaces with fine art exhibitions. In her personal work, Weyhrich explores themes of the balance of life, health, and healing. By exploring those places of suffering and sharing common human experiences through authentic forms, her art resonates with the quest for authenticity and honesty. Human forms are often substituted with used found objects that bear the markings of a life well-lived.
Constantly intrigued with the metaphorical, Denise is driven to create installation art. Transformations have brought her from art teacher to artist, from graphic designer to art professor, and now as a curator & installation artist. The balance of life, health and healing are subjects that require constantly attention in our hurt and hurried society. By going into those places of suffering and sharing common human experiences through authentic forms, her art resonates. Human forms are substituted with used found objects that share that action of a life lived. Words and symbols appear in an ironic manner that ask questions. Numbers are reflecting the numerology of Biblical truths. There are selfimposed time constraints to complete the installation that reach out to a greater community and the quest for authenticity in always at the heart of the installation. Constantly growing and experimenting with new ideas, Denise’s artworks offer authentic encounters with in conceptual art installations. Building installations in community, she incorporates others’ unique touch. Her desire is to create deeper conversations and offer encouragement.
IG: @deniseweyhrich
