In the weeks following Steve’s death while making quarter rings, I filled the dead air with the endless playlists of NPR Tiny Desk Concerts on youtube. Chance The Rapper’s tiny desk was a repeated set during that time. At the end of his concert, he sings a cover of “They Won't Go When I Go”. The song struck me as a hymn and outlined the story of a person taken early, perhaps even in a rapture-like event. I was inspired to meditate on being left behind to grieve Steve, while he didn't have to endure that same grief.

The composition of this piece depicts two figures embraced. The one with his back to the viewer is lifting off the ground and raising towards a beam of light extending from a dark atmosphere. The other figure clings to the first while remaining firmly planted on the ground. The two are situated in the middle of the sanctuary of Westminster Presbyterian Church- expanded to cathedral scale and removed of the familiar pew seating. This is the same church Steve and I grew up in and the church that would host Steve’s funeral. The image reimagines death in the sense of being claimed by heaven rather than leaving the living, however, the figure still expresses the pain and desperation in this otherwise kinder opinion of death.