'Thanatopsis' ARTIST RECEPTION

‘Thantatopsis- Contemplations on Death, Grief, and Renewal’ is a partnership program presented by the Royal Nebeker Gallery at Clatsop Community College and Astoria Visual Arts, in Astoria, Oregon, September 21 - October 22, 2026 featuring an art exhibition and five accompanying public events and workshops that foster deeper connection through discussion and creativity. Community members are invited to reflect on mortality, grief, healing, and the shared experience of loss.

The month-long art exhibition ‘Thanatopsis’ at the Royal Nebeker Gallery is by three female visual artists who are practicing end-of-life doulas (EOLD). Marne Lucas  (Portland, OR) conceived the show, in collaboration previously with Dardinelle Troen (Astoria, OR), and recently invited Emma Lewis Acker (Brooklyn, NY). ‘Thanatopsis’ is a new iteration for the Royal Nebeker Gallery that includes collage, assemblage works on paper, sculpture, photography on paper and silk derived from black and white infrared thermal (IRT) video, and collaborative altars.

As part of the exhibition and workshop programming, Colesie Tharp (Portland, OR) will present an interactive Remembrance Altar on the CCC campus, and at Astoria Visual Arts.

‘Thanatopsis’ explores end of life, grief and the sense of loss that accompanies death. Through distinct bodies of work, the artists reflect upon impermanence and transformation beyond the physical form. Death is a taboo subject, yet we all eventually arrive there. The aim is to create a space for reflection and to express real emotions. Inviting people to feel emptiness and notice moments of beauty in hard places, while also remembering those who have died. Death is a natural part of the cycle of life, and the artist's work places aesthetic, emotional, and philosophical value on this inevitable transition. The artists share the desire to illuminate and connect through creativity, and find new directions in unexpected transformational paths. The audience can share their own experiences and stories in community, where together we can heal.

An end of life doula or “death doula” is a non-medical emotional, spiritual, and practical support role that advocates for the wishes of the dying person and their loved ones. They can also provide grief support, assist with legacy projects, provide education on the dying process, and help make burial plans. The artists share an ethos of caregiving and end of life care advocacy in art and life.

Gallery Hours - Monday–Friday, 9am–5pm. Weekends by appointment only. The Royal Nebeker Gallery is free and open to the public, and is ADA accessible. For more information contact Kristin Shauck at kshauck@clatsopcc.edu.

ARTIST STATEMENTS and BIOS

Emma Lewis Acker –‘Hospes’ and ‘Platonic Solids’ works are of a hybrid form—not quite collage or painting, not quite textile. Using salvaged, industrial rolls of paper she found discarded outside a matzo bakery in her neighborhood, Acker began experimenting with designs, shapes and textures embedded from her early years and developed her artistic process—painting large sheets in rich colors before tearing them to pieces and reassembling in rows of hand stitched color and pattern. Emma’s artwork is the outward expression of a meditative practice—synthesizing her experience of time and space while she walks with humans going through deep transition. The artworks are free to breathe in response to shifts in air current and moisture.

Emma Lewis Acker is an end-of-life doula and artist living and working in Brooklyn, NY, She founded All’s Well Initiative to provide compassionate end-of-life care across the socioeconomic spectrum of NYC. All’s Well also cultivates a growing EOLD network, hosting bimonthly, in-real-life gatherings that provide support and education to the local doula community. She is part of the Artists’ Grief Deck project and a founding team member of Here to Honor, fostering death literacy within communities. Emma is an EOL Academic Doula Instructor with the University of Vermont. She was recently featured in The New Yorker article “The Doulas Who Help Us Die” by Alexandra Schwartz. www.emmalewisacker.com/ www.allswellinitiative.com

Marne Lucas –‘Transmundane’ series is from a lens-based “artveillance” practice that conceptualizes the awe inspiring, invisible, fragile energy of humanity using black and white infrared thermal (IRT) video. Exploring the body and the metaphysical to pose philosophical ideas on transformation, Marne’s professional life as an End of life Doula 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 allows the viewer to witness breathtaking invisible heat signatures (hot areas are white, cold areas are black); expressing 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.

Marne Lucas is a queer interdisciplinary artist and end of life doula (EOLD) based in Portland, OR, whose work explores legacy, mortality, and transformation. Marne’s practice spans photography, video, sculpture and collaboration at the intersection of art, science, technology, and health. The Bardo Project (2014-present) is ongoing collaborations with terminally ill artists to define their legacies, and present their work beyond their lifespan. Marne received end of life doula training under Henry Fersko Weiss at INELDA (2015) and serves the Portland Metro area. An infrared thermal video pioneer since 1995, her ‘Transmundane’ artveillance series depicts the fragile energy of humanity, in works on paper and video. Lucas has collaborated with artists, activists, choreographers, dancers, musicians, activist groups, health care and LGBTQIA nonprofits, and the public at large. Marne has received a Career Opportunity grant, The Ford Family Foundation via the OAC (25/26), a PLAYA Summerlake Art & Science residency (‘25), and RACC project grants. www.marnelucas.com

Dardinelle Troen – ‘All forms dissolve. Only actions endure’ “Art serves as a memento, a reminder, and a talisman. This body of work is a 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.” Troen’s works are sculptural assemblages using bone, biochar, red ochre, ceramics, glass, and handmade cordage from plants.

Dardinelle Troen is an artist, designer, and end-of-life doula based in Astoria, OR. Working at the intersection of art and death, her art explores our interdependence with the Earth and all living beings. Death is the natural outcome of life, and Troen’s art serves as a memento and a talisman. Each piece she creates is a personal meditation on impermanence and the brevity of our existence. Troen has participated in artist residencies in Wales, U.K. and The Atacama Desert in Chile to learn techniques in biochar soil remediation, which she applies to her sculptures. Dardinelle hosts monthly Death Cafes in Astoria, Oregon. www.viemort.com, www.ditroen.com