‘In Memory Of’ Illustrations

“When someone you love becomes a memory, that memory becomes a Treasure”

I create personalised portrait illustrations to celebrate the memory of those you love, to cherish forever.

Offering this service helps me to navigate my own loss, whilst supporting those who are navigating theirs. I feel incredibly honoured to be able to create these illustrations, and each person and family I capture will remain in my heart until the end of my days. I am so lucky to be able to bear witness to so much love. Because that's what grief is isn't it? It's love that suddenly has no where to go. So I create illustrations to allow your love to shine bright, even on the hardest days.

During my time in healthcare as a Nursing student, a nursing Assistant in Aged Care and an Ambulance Volunteer in my local community, I have been witness to life in all its’ forms from beginning to end. I feel incredibly privileged to have observed some truly beautiful moments, and some heartbreakingly tragic moments. This exposure to the fragility of life has expanded on my awareness of how special we all are, and how, in the end, it's the people around us that count. This I know to be 100% true.

I have also experienced significant loss of my own people, with 7 of them passing away in one year. This was incredibly difficult to deal with and it resulted in me leaving my position of providing direct care to people. This personal loss suddenly flew open a door that was encapsulated in grief. Not only for the people I had loved, but for all the people and their loved ones I had cared for. I found that I became incredibly aware of how short life was and I wasn't able to navigate these new feelings that had been lying dormant. I began to feel less like myself, and felt like I had lost my identity.

However, I came back to creating art so that I could feel my self worth and try to switch off from what I was feeling. Slowly it began to work, and one day I found myself painting, listening to music, and dancing. Right there and then, I decided that this was how I wanted to live the rest of my life. Painting, and enjoying the small moments - celebrating the small and beautiful life.

Because of my love for people, I worked at building my skills around capturing the human form through online life drawing sessions and lots of drawing people in public. I enjoyed imagining what their life was like and felt a connection with each person, even if they didn't realise. Because of this practice and perseverance, I became able to piece together illustrations of people from multiple photo’s/references.

I soon became brave enough to begin looking through my old photo's of those I loved who had passed away, and gut-wrenchingly realised that I had hardly any photo's of myself with them, and this hurt. So, I decided to use my illustration skills to create my own sense of closure and connection to my people by creating portraits of me with them. All of a sudden I had somewhere for my love to go. It was no longer floating around me like fog. This is how I came to offering my "In Memory Of…" service. I realised that I wasn't alone in my grief and that others may also wish to have the opportunity to forever celebrate the people/pets they loved so much.

And so, I now use my previous experiences with loss to attach an element of joy to people's grief. And if I can use my illustration skills to take away even a tiny amount of pain from someone, then I believe that I have achieved what I've always wanted to achieve - which is to make people feel better in any way that I can during the hardest moments of their lives.

How I came to make ‘In Memory Of’ Illustrations:

Bespoke Illustrations to forever Treasure

If you would like to celebrate the life of someone you love, or would like to gift a personalised ‘In Memory Of’ illustration to a loved one, friend, colleague then please have a look at some options below.

Please note that, as expressed above, I have personal experience with grief and will ensure that this service is provided with the utmost compassion, love, and heart. I feel honoured that you have chosen me to create such a personal piece that will forever be cherished. I hope that I can provide some joy, and ability to reminisce about the times you shared together.

As part of my commitment to supporting charitable services and my local community, 10% of each order for an ‘In Memory Of’ illustration will be donated to Busselton Hospice to enable the staff and volunteers to continue to support those receiving Palliative and End of Life Care.

Loved One Portrait

Loved Pet Portrait

Kim

“Happy tears. You’ve captured my Nan and I in such a light, gorgeous way. you’ve taken the sadness inside my heart and you’ve infused it with all the beautifulness that was the connection between my Nan and I, and you’ve created something for me to hold and look at, and remember all of that. Thank you so very much Kirsty. I can’t put into words how special this is to me.”

Janelle

“Thank you so, so much. I can’t tell you how much this means to me. He was my best friend and got me through so many hard times. I miss him every day. Thank you so much.”

FAQs

  • Yes, I use my illustration skills to piece together an image from multiple photographs.

  • Yes I can. Simply get in touch via email or the form submission and we can organise to chat about how many people you would like and the amount of photographs I will need to work from.

  • Please allow 2 weeks from receiving the photographs to completion of the illustration.

    Postage is seperate to this timeframe and is reliant on the timeframes of the postage system. Each order is sent Express with a tracking code.

  • Please email me your photographs, with your name, address, and contact number so I can cross-check against my orders.

    I will then liaise with you to confirm who you would like illustrated.