‘I’d swap anything I do to have him back.’ How does an artist work through the loss of her heart’s beat?
1 After Jack, 2012 Jenny Sages. © Jenny Sages. 2 My Jack, 2011 Jenny Sages. Private collection. © Jenny Sages. Photo © AGNSW.
Artist Jenny Sages met her husband Jack in 1954 and it was love at first sight. When Jenny dedicated herself to painting, she had Jack’s unwavering support for the next three decades. While she spent long hours in the studio, Jack made dinner. He also made her frames. The last frame he made was for the only portrait Jenny ever painted of Jack – an intimate, personal work. He was ill, and passed away just three months later. The following year Jenny painted her self-portrait, After Jack, which won the 2012 Archibald Prize People’s Choice award. Explaining the work’s title, Jenny said simply ‘Anything else I would paint … seemed trivial to me’. For 55 years the two belonged to each other, and Jenny continues on in Jack’s absence: ‘The only way I survive this is because I have my work. I don’t want to let him down.’
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