W H O , W H A T , W H E R E, W H E N & W H Y ? 

Mourning was initiated into the world of photography at eighteen years old attending a Summer workshops in Maine. Post college while living in New York City, Mourning quit her first and only desk job at Sotheby’s Auction house. She began interning with commercial photographers during the height of this profession and serving beers at Chumleys, an original speakeasy in the west village to subsidize her income. In 2001, Mourning returned to the workshops but this time as an assistant to National Geographic photo journalists in Cuba. Mourning was initially indoctrinated into photo journalism 35mm photography but one photo from the work made in Cuba was printed 60 x 90 inches on silver gelatin paper in New York City three times and sold in the Napa Valley to art collectors. This was the first ping to think of herself as an artist. Once returning to New York, rather than continue to work for male photographers who wanted more than she was willing to provide, Mourning applied to Art Center College of Design in Pasadena, California. She moved to LA one year later in 2002.

While attending Art Center’s photo program, Mourning met conceptual artists Christopher Williams and Eve Fowler who encouraged her to pursue photography as a medium to connect to story and concept. As a flailing student most of her childhood, Mourning began to love studying and applied to the Royal College of Art MFA program in London, England. There, she received a kick in the ass on every level and proceeded to surprise even herself by receiving the coveted Deutsche Bank Award. This award afforded an artist a large chunk of change to continue practicing art and focus on a specific project. In 2005, Mourning took a ferry to Ireland from Wales and for two months studied the potato famine. Mourning returned with a body of work which is a part of many private collections including Deutsche Bank.

The following fifteen years were spent in Mourning’s childhood backyard of Marin County and San Francisco. This chapter was catalyzed by Stay with Me, an all encompassing installation inside her home in 2021. Mourning welcomed over two thousand guests for private tours and communing. The response was nothing short of life affirming.

Mourning is currently living in a rock house homestead in Roscoe, Montana which her family helped her purchase in 2015. After nine years of communing with an old homestead and ranch rich with palpable history along with the breadth of the oldest rocks in the world, it is Mourning’s intent to turn the rock house and the surrounding land into an art installation. Mourning intends to host visitors to stay longer in order to raise funds to restore the historic T-O Bar red barn into an arts foundation for Soul seekers to attempt to be still, quiet and listen.