Bernell Loeb’s “The Love and Loss Project” is a magical cabinet. When opened, it breathes in and begins to sing. A choir fills the air with song. Behind those painted doors, you’ll discover a hand-knitted dress passed down to the Portland artist by her grandmother, uncovered in a box of belongings after her death. Made more than 100 years ago, it is a powerful inheritance and symbol of a dream unrealized.

“We never talked about the past in my family, but I knew my grandmother grew up poor, cooking and caring for her younger siblings,” Loeb said. “Was the dress an outward manifestation of her inner desire for a beautiful life? That’s how I think of it now. She never showed it to anyone. It's as if she packed away that part of her life after she got married. ”

Now, the garment is surrounded by scenes depicting a liberated form of self-expression. Vibrant butterflies and woodland creatures peek through blooming daffodils, roses, thistle, and other lush greenery beneath a golden-hour sky. Among the thicket, a pair of piercing blue eyes gaze back at you. All together, they are Loeb’s tribute to the one person in her life who taught her the value of work made by hand. On a larger scale, they are a call to save a world that’s teetering on the edge.

In many mythologies, there are gardens that represent our search for paradise — like the Garden of Eden from the Book of Genesis, which contained the Tree of Life as well as the forbidden fruit of knowledge. There were the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, which may have been constructed by the Syrian King Sennacherib, although no one is completely certain they ever existed. Then there were the Gardens of Hesperides, where a 100-headed dragon guarded the golden apples of Hera’s garden. Each was a mystical place of transformation and ideals.

Loeb’s painted garden is a reflection of the type of growth that she’s striving to achieve; a state of tranquility, beauty, peace, and love. After all these years, she admits it’s still a hard climb. The paintings are also a meditation on the flowers, insects, and animals that she’d like to be a part of her wild, internal landscape.

This multi-media artwork also captures how we are all born into cultural “cabinets” of family, religion, community, country, etc., and the struggle it often takes to understand and integrate these influences. Like the young girl in Loeb’s short film, we discover that life includes profound loss of everything and everyone we love. How do we hold onto the memory of what’s lost without letting it upend our very being? How do we continue to love this difficult world with all its pain and sorrow?

Thich Naht Hahn, the Buddhist monk and author and an inspiration for Loeb, often referred to the garden as a metaphor for our inner lives. He said:

“Your mind is like a piece of land planted with many different kinds of seeds: seeds of joy, peace, mindfulness, understanding, and love; seeds of craving, anger, fear, hate, and forgetfulness. These wholesome and unwholesome seeds are always there, sleeping in the soil of your mind. The quality of your life depends on the seeds you water. If you plant tomato seeds in your gardens, tomatoes will grow. Just so, if you water a seed of peace in your mind, peace will grow. When the seeds of happiness in you are watered, you will become happy. When the seed of anger in you is watered, you will become angry. The seeds that are watered frequently are those that will grow strong.”  

“I think the only way we can experience loss is to recognize that love is the foundation of our universe. Perhaps love is our superpower,” Loeb said. “With it, we can transform our personal inner garden. And in transforming ourselves, we can transform our relationship with the paradise that is our planetary garden.”

“May our heart's garden of awakening bloom with hundreds of flowers.” - Thich Naht Hahn.

If you are interested in seeing “The Love and Loss Project” as well as other paintings by Loeb, you can view her work during Portland Open Studios on Oct. 10-11 and Oct. 17-18, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., and online at BernellLoeb.com.