Yellow Day

01 Bed

8 years ago, a few months after I finished an MA in Authorial Illustration, I had an idea for an illustrated book. It was going to be called ‘Yellow Day’ and be about grief. I’m not sure where this idea came from, I hadn’t had a huge amount of experience of grief, but there it was.

A book about all those objects, places and activities that remind you of a person when they’ve gone.
A book about the intertwined nature of life and death – full of it’s contrasts and contradictions in that you can’t have one without the other.
A book about the seasons, time passing and the world moving on.
A book about the confusing nature of loss: how it is still possible to feel joy and all the pleasures of life even though someone or something is missing, and the guilt that comes with that.

Maybe working on this book was preparing me for losing Maisie. Or maybe it was just a very unfortunate coincidence. Whatever it is, Maisie’s death has spurred me on to complete it once and for all. I always worried that the book may not have enough authenticity when I hadn’t experienced real grief myself – but looking through the words and pictures, it does all resonate with me now.

I really hope that those who see and read the book get something from it in some way.

I hope the book has a positive outlook on grief and bereavement. I wanted the book to show how it is possible to still enjoy and live life, whilst keeping the happy memories of that missing person alive.

Here are some of the images to give you a taster…

04 Coat