BELLEVILLE — Author and illustrator Marie Fritz Perry will present: Illustrating Grief: A Work in Progress, taking place from 6:30-7:30 p.m. on May 16 at the Belleville Public Library’s Community Room. Her talk will showcase several of her large scale oil paintings and sketches that will illustrate her upcoming memoir. 

Perry will explore how her work as an artist is helping to convey her journey through grief, as she writes her memoir “The Other Side of Grief:  Finding Life After Death.” 

Perry found her way to write about grief began with picking up the brush and painting again. Through expressing her own stages of grief through self-portraiture, she is finding her own way to write about the pain of loss and work on healing.

Perry lost her husband Jim to colon cancer 6 years ago and her oil paintings and sketches on display at the Belleville Public Library are designed to help open a discussion about what grief does to the ones left behind and how to live after loss.

Perry’s art work will also be on display at the Belleville Public Library through the month of May. 

She said is excited to present her work to the public on May 16 and discuss the artistic process that is helping her journey through grief. The event is free to the public. 

Perry has written and published two children’s picture books and has also illustrated a total of three works for children during her career as a portrait artist. Her memoir in progress will be her first for an adult audience.

Currently, Perry is a member — and also serves as Secretary for the Board — of the Wisconsin Pastel Artists. She calls Monroe home and enjoys incorporating much of Wisconsin’s beauty into her work as an artist. Her work has been featured in Gun Dog Magazine among other equestrian publications. 

She is also the high school and middle school librarian for the School District of Belleville, as well as the Communications Director for the school district.