Between Life and Death.
My Journey towards a Death Dialogue.
I am the Grief Weaver:
Artist of Transitions and Guide through Realms of Grief.
In my House of Crossings, I weave memory, ritual, and art into new pathways through loss. I offer conversations for people navigating loss: through art, through words, through the quiet presence of nature. With a mindset that doesn’t shy away from death.
Currently in training to become a grief companion, I am a certified Gefühle.Leben.Lernen.® practitioner. My approach is unconventional, but shaped by my own story, my own experiences of life and death.
Perhaps my open relationship with death is rooted in the Mexican culture I was born into. There, death is not taboo. The dead are part of everyday life: remembered at meals, in stories, in celebrations, in images on altars at home. There is no denial of the inevitable but rather, a deep, life-affirming coexistence of death and life.
Death has been part of my artistic practice for a long time. I explore the bright side of death. After my 40th birthday, my own finiteness came into sharper focus. When aging, farewells and decay all moved closer.
I had known death early: as a friend, a daughter, a granddaughter. But there came a time when I began to sense that I carried something within me that could help others, and that my words, my presence and my way of being could offer comfort. Perhaps there was something within me that was meant to be shared.
Martin and I were partners for 24 years. We were an artist couple: he photographed, I painted. Our lives were deeply intertwined, in both work and daily life. In November 2017, we received his diagnosis: lung cancer, already metastasized. The next fourteen months we spent between hope and farewell. We spoke openly about dying, about his urn, his obituary, his farewell and we planned everything together.
This experience showed me how healing it can be to embrace death. Not as an ending, but as part of the cycle. I often wonder why it is so hard for us to talk about it. And yet, it’s the one thing we all have in common.
A House with Open Doors
When I moved into the old parsonage, I knew right away: This is a place where we can talk about death. Something in the atmosphere, in the old wooden floors, in the garden – as if the house itself had been waiting for these conversations.
I apprenticed as a gardener when I was young. A garden was always part of my life. Nature shows us that life means change, not loss. That things can pass without vanishing. That understanding doesn’t always require words.
Over time, people told me that speaking with me about loss, farewells, or the life that follows felt grounding and helpful. It had been with me for a long time – like a quiet calling.
Now it has become a path.
Here are some interviews, articles and thoughts
that have emerged in dialogue on art, death & society.
In eternity – the specialist magazine for the funeral world in the German-speaking realm –Renée Magaña offers insight into her art that moves between this world and the next. Through urns, images, and objects, she speaks of glimmers in the darkness, of rituals that comfort, and memories that remain.
Her work touches the grieving and funeral professionals alike – and opens a quiet, colourful welcome at the edge of the world. Read the full article in German hier.
We talk about Death. Podcast by Elena Ibello.
In October, Elena Ibello spoke with me about art, death, and loss.
As the daughter of a Mexican father and a Swiss mother, I grew up in Los Angeles. From an early age, I felt close to the way death was approached in my family and in Mexican culture.
A few years ago, my husband Martin died. After 24 years together, I accompanied him through his final 14 months – from the diagnosis to his last breath.
I often ask myself why it is so difficult for us to speak about dying, death, and impermanence – or even to think about it. And yet, I believe there’s something profoundly unifying in this topic: it is the one thing that truly connects every human being on this planet.
That’s why I continue to engage with death – and hope to encourage others, through my art, to look closer, to feel, and to open themselves.You can listen to the full conversation in Swiss German with Elena Ibello hier.
Ongoing Dialogues with Rebekka Nowak
Culinary traditions – and how they nourish the souls of the living and the dead.
Rebekka Nowak is a grief and end-of-life companion, a spiritual caregiver, and a mother.
The Trauer Taskforce regularly hosts conversations that explore mourning, memory, and the art of farewell from new angles. Rebekka Nowak is a steady, luminous voice in these dialogues: warm, clear, and deeply human.
„We’re still very cautious when it comes to honouring the dead, to celebrating them, and giving thanks. My heartfelt wish is that we open up to this – and that people lose their fear of death.“
— Rebekka Nowak
In our conversations, we spoke about the power of rituals, about flowers, photographs, candles, and good food.
What do Mexicans do differently when facing the finite?
What can we learn from them, to develop a more conscious, more colourful relationship with death?
A loss does not have to be grey and dark.
It is painful – no question – but with love, gratitude, and nourishing traditions, we can begin to grasp the end… with both hands.
Watch the conversation (in German) 2023.
Watch the conversation (in German) 2024.
