ART THAT AWAKENS:
A Life Worth Completing
A fine art book weaving painting, memoir, spiritual reflection, and psychedelic inquiry into a contemplative experience.
How do we live fully?
What remains after loss?
How do we find meaning in impermanence?
Art That Awakens began as a body of paintings created in the aftermath of my brother Brendan's death. What began as a personal creative practice gradually expanded into something much larger. Painting became a way of staying in conversation with questions I couldn't answer.
The reflections, stories, and conversations that emerged eventually became Art That Awakens: a fine art book weaving painting, memoir, spiritual reflection, and psychedelic inquiry into a single contemplative experience.
What first emerged as a personal response to loss has grown into a broader exploration of presence, creativity, connection, and what it means to live a life worth completing.
MATERIAL AS CONDUIT
Created on translucent material and activated through light, these works explore transformation as both process and experience. Ink moves freely across the surface, guided, but never fully controlled. Light becomes an active collaborator, continually changing how each piece is perceived. The material allows grief, memory, beauty, and wonder to coexist within the same visual field.
GEOGRAPHIES OF GRIEF
Many of these works were created while traveling through landscapes connected to Brendan's life and death. The paintings became a way of mapping grief through environment, memory, and sensation. Each work serves as a kind of emotional cartography, translating experiences that could never be fully expressed through language alone.
BEYOND LANGUAGE
My brother Brendan was non-verbal for part of his childhood. That experience profoundly shaped my understanding of communication, connection, and presence. These works explore forms of knowing that exist beyond speech: intuition, feeling, memory, nature, and the subtle ways we remain connected to those we love long after they are gone.
Art That Awakens was designed to be experienced as much as it is read. Just as light moves through the artwork, the reader moves through multiple visual and narrative planes simultaneously. Rather than functioning solely as documentation, the book creates moments of layering, permeability, and discovery.
AN EXPERIENCE TO BEHOLD
Full-color reproductions of Erin Long's original paintings
Memoir, reflection, and philosophical inquiry woven throughout
Layered translucent pages and immersive book design
A contemplative reading experience that unfolds gradually
An invitation to reflect on your own relationship with presence, creativity, grief, and what it means to live a life worth completing
WHAT YOU’LL ENCOUNTER
A BOOK FOR BRENDAN
From the beginning, this body of work was created with a book in mind. Brendan was a writer, constantly filling notebooks with stories and ideas. Art That Awakens became a way of continuing a creative conversation with him. The paintings, writing, and book exist together as both an artistic project and an act of completion: a celebration of creativity, memory, and a life that continues to shape my own. I hope that somewhere within these pages, you encounter not only my story, but a deeper glimpse into your own.
Stay Connected
Whether you’re interested in commissioned work, exhibitions, or simply staying connected, I warmly welcome inquiries and meaningful conversation. This space is open—an invitation to reach out, share, and explore what might unfold.