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Memorial bench balances loss and mourning

Simon Lopez/KBBI

Homer artist Brad Hughes recently hosted a showing of the Loved and Lost Memorial Bench and a look into its current stage of completion.
    Hughes has been working on the bench for about seven months and has worked closely with Sara Berg, Anesha “Duffy” Murnane's mother, to create the bench in a way that conveys the message Sarah hopes. Murnane is the Homer woman who vanished without a trace two years ago. She was legally declared dead this summer.
    Christina Whiting, who is the project manager for the Loved and Lost bench project , talked about what you see when viewing the bench.
    “So Brad’s working on this bench really since April and we've been calling it a memorial bench, but if you're standing here, what you see is actually 11 sculptures, working in harmony in relationship with one another,” Whiting said. “On the one side of the bench, we have the forms that represent those who are missing, taken, murdered. On the other side, we have the forms that represent their loved ones.”
    Each figure on the bench has a backstory, depicted through gestures, expressions, and viewer interpretation. Berg talks about the origins of one of the sculptures.
    “The baby, I think on this side has the most significance for me because Duffy was just crazy about babies. So I wanted to have a baby in here for that, but the baby symbolizes the babies that have been taken from their mothers. It symbolizes this woman. This is not her baby,” she said. “She was stolen away from her baby. Or she never had babies and she never will have babies because she won't be allowed to have babies.”
    After months of work on the creation of the bench, the three hundred pound clay scene is almost ready to be cast. Hughes explains that, first the clay sculpture is built by hand, so that a rubber mold can be made to shape the final result.
    The rubber mold can be used to replicate other benches.
    With a project so closely bound to the subject of loss such as this one, Hughes shares some newfound insights into loss and mourning in today’s world.
    “I personally think our culture is kind of stunted and especially my brothers, at understanding how we feel,” he said. “Expressing how we feel, and knowing that it's a healthy pathway to know how you feel and be able to express it.”
    Hughes references the looks of despair and profound sadness each of the figures on the bench display. He says it is unusual in society, to have one's feelings out on the surface, for everyone to see. And how that is a distinct shortcoming.
     “And we walk around in a society where we're not okay with each other's pain. And we don't know how to visit people who have cancer. We don't know how to talk to people who have had a terrible loss. So Sara pushed me to say, look, this is how it feels, and I'm not ashamed of this,” Hughes said. “If you have your daughter taken, if you have your daughter taken, you have the greatest pain that I believe you could ever have, and this is an understatement, but I hope it will have some effect.”
    The Loved and Lost Memorial Bench is set to be dedicated in October via Zoom presentation to the public.

Simon Lopez is a long time listener of KBBI Homer. He values Kachemak Bay’s beauty and its overall health. Simon is community oriented and enjoys being involved in building and maintaining an informed and proactive community.
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