A local artist introduces her art and philosophy into a health-care space.

Artist Jessica Dune was able to observe beauty in her mother’s passing and make it part of her artistic process that she now shares with others. Her triptych, “Beauty Comes of All Things," which is made of all natural materials, is now hanging at a Montage Health rehabilitation clinic called Westland House in Monterey.

Moved by an experience of loss and new thoughts that followed, the artist—who lived in Monterey County from 2013 until very recently—started to volunteer with the Montage Health Foundation providing hospice services. She also joined a local chapter of Threshold Choir, a worldwide network of singing volunteers who perform a cappella music at the bedsides of those who are ill, dying or grieving to provide comfort and peace.

A lifelong artist engaged in fiber arts practice, Dune (the artist name Jessica Neafsey gave herself) decided to share her art—she applied for and received an individual grant for an established artist from the Arts Council for Monterey County, with the intent to donate her resulting piece to a health-care space.

“It started with a little winter scarf,” Dune shared during an Oct. 23 dedication ceremony at the Westland House, a clinic secluded in Del Monte Forest in Monterey.

The scarf in the story was a Christmas gift she had given to her mother, who was dying, and then quite accidentally turned out to be a wonderful gift, “an important transitional object” that provided comfort and warmth in her last days. Dune wore the scarf to her mother’s funeral.

The original design inspired the one Dune came up with—both for her triptych and blankets she designed with similar images that can be distributed to hospice patients.

The artwork is a simple composition of three pieces made of linen and cotton, based on an ancient Japanese technique that uses rice paste in a manner similar to batik wax to create a pattern. Dune then used natural dye, first a pomegranate-based dye for a yellowish hue then indigo, creating a shade of turquoise. In delicate lines, the moon is depicted in various phases, as well as ferns (to Dune, symbols of wisdom) both in growth and death, as well the sun. They represent life as a cycle, with its phases or growth and unfurling, ultimately toward death. 

“The piece supports the patients who spend time in this space,” says Elizabeth Harbaugh, the manager of the Montage’s Arts in Health program. She emphasizes that Dune used nature to create art instead of using artificial or modified materials and making something that only represents nature.

“Nature supports health; there are many studies on its impact," Harbaugh says. "It’s soothing.” 

Montage’s Arts in Health program has developed in recent years. The foundation is growing and collects more and more art, collaborating with artists, according to Harbaugh.

Westland House is a rehabilitation clinic where patients go through recovery, often after a surgery and they often stay for many weeks. The triptych now hangs in the cafeteria and will serve them during much-needed community gathering during long weeks of recovery. 

Perhaps the most touching element was a "threshold" song Dune prepared for the ceremony and added to her gift—a simple soothing tune for the end of life—to make the passage easier.

“A quiet song to have something handy,” Dune offered. “After all, we are all here only for a certain amount of time.”