Thanatopsis: A Meditation on Grief, Death, and Transition
Top left: 'Grief Body 2', 2024, Shelley Chamberlin, India Ink on paper, 24 x 18 inches. Top right: 'Marrow Noir', 2025, Dardinelle Troen, archival digital photo on walnut, biochar, deer vertebrae,14 x 7 x 2.5 inches. At bottom: 'Primodialscapes' (detail) 2025, Marne Lucas, infrared thermal video still, archival pigment print on Royal silk chiffon, acrylic rod, 40 x 60 inches.
Thanatopsis: Meditations on Grief, Death, and Transformation
Artists: Shelley Chamberlin, Marne Lucas, and Dardinelle Troen
On View: December 4, 2025 - February 14, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, December 4, 2025, 5pm-8pm
Artist Talk and Closing Reception: Saturday, February 14, 2026, 5:00pm - 8:00pm
Paragon Arts Gallery at PCC Cascade, 815 N Killingsworth St, Portland, OR 97217
Gallery Hours: Wednesday 12-7pm, Thursday 12-7pm, Friday 2-7pm, Saturday 12-5pm
Free and open to the public. ADA accessible.
Thanatopsis is a premiere three-person art exhibition that explores the end of life, the grief that accompanies death, and conceptually addresses impermanence and transformation beyond the physical form. Death is a taboo subject, yet we all eventually arrive there. The aim is to allow for the tangible feelings, the vastness of empty space, the sparse moments of sublime beauty in these difficult places, and honor the memory of those who have died. Death is a natural part of the cycle of life, and our individual work places aesthetic, emotional, and philosophical value on this inevitable transition. We three artists have found community in each other through our lived experiences with grief, loss, and transformation. We share the desire to illuminate and connect through our creativity, and find new direction in unexpected transformational paths. The audience can share their own experiences and stories in community, together we heal.
The artworks range from 2D drawings and paintings on paper, ethereal black and white infrared thermal (IRT) video still imagery as decals on ceramic tile and silk banners, and assemblages made with ceramic, bone, gold leaf, thread and biochar.
Community programming will take place in January 2026 (dates TBA), will include a death meditation, a legacy collage workshop, and a write-your-own obituary workshop. End-of-life care advocacy materials available throughout the duration of the exhibition. As both Marne and Dardinelle are also end of life doulas and have collaborated on arts programming, they are engaging their doula communities to guide programming.
ARTIST STATEMENTS
Shelley Chamberlin - Grief Body
“When a loved one dies, you experience your life in just two days, today, when they are no longer here, and yesterday, the immense, vast yesterday, when they were here.” –Ocean Vuong
Grief body is an ongoing series documenting the raw and unfiltered experiences of grief’s movement in and through the body, the ghost in the machine, the river through the canyon of the body. Impossible and inevitable. Figures overlap and layer, untethered by time, ghosts accrue.
Marne Lucas - Transmundane
Scientist Carl Sagan said, “…we are made of star stuff.”
The Transmundane series is an ongoing lens-based artveillance practice to conceptualize the awe inspiring, invisible, fragile energy of humanity using heat-sensitive infrared thermal (IRT) video. Exploring the body and the metaphysical to pose philosophical ideas on transformation, Lucas’ professional life as an end of life Doula (EOLD) provides insight. “Being at the veil” is to bear witness to physical, emotional, and spiritual transformations of life’s ebb and flow, into a new form of energy, Love.
Thermography technology most associated with surveillance culture allows the viewer to witness invisible heat signatures and expresses ideas about our beginnings as being part of the universe, that we are beings of light. To witness our own energy is to accept the temporality of existence, and the magic of the transmundane- that which lies in the celestial and beyond. The series of infrared video stills applied as decals to glazed vitreous porcelain tiles have imagery sourced from the short films Haute Flash (2017) and Padma Mudra (WIP). The glazed vitreous porcelain tiles were made at my Arts/Industry residency (Pottery Division) at the Kohler Co. factory in Sheboygan, Wisconsin.
Dardinelle Troen - All forms dissolve. Only actions endure. Art serves as a memento, a reminder, and a talisman. This body of work is a personal meditation on my own impermanence on this planet and the brevity of our existence. What do we leave in our absence? What residual traces do we reverberate, and what gifts do we leave in our wake for a planet that has sustained us in every waking moment? Every living thing needs something to die in order to live. Death feeds life.
I became enamored with the ideas of impermanence and transformation and how my work, like life, might be intentionally impermanent—deliberately returning to the earth and transforming in the process. The alchemical nature of elements to transform. Death and decay become vital nutrients that sustain new life.
Biochar, also known as Terra Preta or “Dark Earth,” is a form of soil amendment that dates back to Amazonian tribes and, some say, Roman-era Britain. Unlike traditional charcoal, biochar facilitates the sequestration of carbon. The biochar is subsequently activated or charged with nutrients that are then released over time, while the porosity and surface area of the biochar improve soil structure and house beneficial microbes. I was inspired by the process, which, unlike traditional charcoal, left the original biomatter visually intact yet forever altered its composition while maintaining the original form.
Each of the pieces in this body of work is meant to, in part or whole, dissolve, degrade, and eventually disappear back into the earth, leaving gifts and nutrients in their wake. They are intentionally impermanent with the desire that they, like our own bodies, will need to be released and returned to the earth.
BIOS
Shelley Chamberlin is an interdisciplinary artist who works in a variety of media from printmaking to film to performative installation, most recently leaning heavily into intimate and delicate drawing in ink and charcoal. Chamberlin’s work explores relationality and the ways in which we build and contextualize meaning and has been shown locally and nationally. Their work has been included in a variety of film and print media, including NBC’s Grimm, The Grove Review, and Album Covers for The Speechwriters and Velvet Mishka. Her work is included in the collections of Pacific Northwest College of Art, Portland State University, Southern Graphics Council International, and Regional Arts and Culture Council's Visual Chronicle of Portland. Chamberlin has a BFA from Marylhurst University and an MFA from Goddard. She is Art Faculty at PCC. Chamberlin is a 2022 recipient of the Ford Family Foundation Oregon Artist Fellowship and artist in residence at MASS MoCA.
www.shelleychamberlinart.com
Marne Lucas is an interdisciplinary artist and end of life doula (EOLD) working at the intersection of art, science, and health, using conceptual overlaps: life’s energy, the body, and mortality, in social practice investigations. An infrared thermal video pioneer since 1995, Lucas uses heat-sensitive imaging technology to illuminate the fragility of human life cycles. Lucas’ long-term projects are informed by the community around her, and are inspired by the doula movements. The Bardo Project explores creativity as a form of spiritual care in collaborations with terminally ill artists nationwide to establish their legacy. Lucas received EOLD training at INELDA under Henry Fersko Weiss, a role that supports the dying and their families. Lucas has collaborated with artists, choreographers, dancers, musicians, activist groups, sex workers, health care and LGBTQIA non-profits, and the public at large. She exhibits worldwide including The Brand Library (L.A.), Fremantle Arts Centre (Perth, AU), Peltz Gallery (London UK), FEMeeting 2025 Windsor, CAD (2024), “Synthetic Becoming” Byrno, CR (2022), ‘Taboo-Transgression-Technology in Art & Science’ Vienna online (2020). Lucas participated in a 2025 PLAYASummerlake (OR) residency, and a 2016 Arts/Industry artist residency (Foundry, Pottery Divisions) at the Kohler Co. Her work is in collections of the Portland Art Museum, Hallie Ford Museum of Art, and the Visual Chronicle of Portland, RACC. www.marnelucas.com
Dardinelle Troen is an artist, designer, and end-of-life doula. Her creative pursuits focus on crafting immersive environments and infusing physical spaces with meaningful stories. Much of her past work revolves around exploring human narratives and their lasting impact on the environments they inhabit. These stories—personal anecdotes, myths, folklore, or poetry—are essential to the human experience and a deeper understanding of our shared experiences. Participants can see their journeys, hopes, desires, and vulnerabilities reflected through this simple sharing of stories. Fostering an emotional connection and contributing to the profound legacy of the human condition.
Over the past decade, Dardinelle’s exploration of visually translating a myriad of stories ignited a deeply personal quest to embrace and investigate a broader spectrum of human experience, from love to grief, and life to death. This journey ultimately inspired her to become an end-of-life doula and a guide for plant medicine. Dardinelle aims to create and nurture spaces where these stories can unfold, supporting the extraordinary individuals who embody them. Wherever possible, she seeks to illuminate these narratives in ways that can offer healing to all who encounter them. www.ditroen.com
About Paragon Arts Gallery:
Paragon Arts Gallery is an educational showcase committed to exhibiting work of high artistic quality. Our versatile gallery is located at 815 North Killingsworth, at PCC’s Cascade Campus.
https://www.pcc.edu/galleries/2025/11/04/thanatopsis-a-meditation-on-grief-death-and-transition/
Grants
Support for development of this exhibition was provided by The Ford Family Foundation, and by the Oregon Arts Commission, Marne Lucas 2025/26 Career Opportunity Grant.
