Evan Wagoner

   “What if Grief Is Love?”

Digital video, Six minutes and 30 seconds, 2023

“Grieving is loving. It’s just loving something that’s gone.” - Squirrel

Squirrel Dialogues is an online video series on mental health and healing that was created by artist Evan Wagoner-Lynch in 2020. Over the past five years, the artist has produced over 180 videos, shot on location in the forests of Orcas Island and Olympia in Washington State. The videos take the form of monologues and conversations, primarily starring Squirrel, a second-hand squirrel puppet. Other characters include an off-screen human, and the puppet characters Rage Rabbit and Worry Fox.

The artist develops video content based on lessons from his own healing journey, with particular inspiration from children’s television pioneer Fred Rogers, trauma expert Gabor Maté, Buddhist teacher Thích Nhất Hạnh, and Internal Family Systems theory. Squirrel’s East Coast accent is based on that of mindfulness expert John Kabat Zinn. The Squirrel Dialogues project has been viewed over 11 million times.

In the presented video, “What if Grief Is Love,” Squirrel poses the possibility that grief is an expression of love. The premise of the video is based on insights from the artist’s own journey with grief. The artist began attending community grief rituals in 2022, in an effort to address his longtime struggles with PTSD. He has since attended over 20 rituals, and completed a grief ritual facilitator training. His perspective on grief is informed by a lineage of grief educators and ritualists, including Sobonfu Somé, Martín Prechtel, Francis Weller, Therése Charvet, and Laurence Cole. 

 Artist Bio

Evan Wagoner-Lynch is an Olympia-based artist, writer, and facilitator focused on mental health, healing, and community. He is currently studying community resiliency and belonging at the Evergreen State College.