Bianca Nikol Roberson: Her Light Eclipsed Portrait of Bianca Nikol Roberson by Helen Mangelsdorf

From the artist Helen Mangelsdorf: My mother Mary B. Mangelsdorf spent her final years in ‘Assisted Living’ at Whitehorse Village in Newtown Square, PA. Michelle Roberson, Bianca’s mother was one of Mom’s favorite nurses there. During the same period in which Michelle suffered the horrific loss of Bianca, she continued to carry on her professional life with great strength and compassion. Mom was very happy that she was able to make the connection between Michelle and me. This portrait is therefore a memorial to Bianca, but also to Mom. Above all it is a testament to the tremendous strength Michelle has shown while enduring the unendurable, the loss of the light of her life: Bianca Nikol Roberson.

From the curator: What strikes me most when I look at the portrait of Bianca is the heart shape of her face and hair, subtly manipulated to great effect by Helen. While all our project’s portraits aim to focus on the lives lived and not the deaths, many have incorporated subtle and loving ways to show passage of time and layers of being. The inclusion of the solar eclipse images at the base of the portrait does just that as well as pointing up the momentousness of the loss of this lovely light.

Bianca Nikol Roberson: Her Light Eclipsed Portrait of Bianca Nikol Roberson by Helen Mangelsdorf gouache on clay board mounted on decorative Japanese paper 14” x 18” 2019