Visual and Verbal Responses to the Loss of a Son March 12, 2013 By Collegeville Institute Leave a Comment John Blosser, Professor of Arts Emeritus at Goshen College came to the Institute to work on his project, the Visual and Verbal Responses to the Loss of a Son. During his short stay at the Institute, John could often be found as the sun was beginning to set, across Fruit Farm Road, setting up his easel and beginning to draw the nearby hockey rink, a reminder of the son he’d lost. John also shared with us a painting of the trees outside his apartment at the Collegeville Institute and the nearby SJU soccer field. He told of the connections he made and conversations he had with students and other passerby’s, as he painted and drew his surroundings. He both laughed and lamented the difficulty he discovered when painting on late cold Minnesota evenings when his paint would run and refuse to dry. Throughout John’s short stay with us, and particularly during a lunch seminar with other scholars, Collegeville Institute staff, and members of the monastic community, John drew our attention to the work of grief as it intersects with art and nature. A few samples of John’s painting during his time at the Institute. Like this post? Subscribe to have new posts sent to you by email the same day they are posted.