The Art of Denise Kufus Weyhrich

by John Brantingham

I recently had the chance to interview Denise Weyhrich for the Sasse Museum of Art’s third Saturday interview series. She’s an artist who has created installations for years in the Los Angeles/Orange County area, reflecting what is happening in her life and the world. I find much about her work to be interesting, but what I find fascinating about her is that she creates work and discusses subjects that are often avoided because they can bring up awkward moments. Art, especially her art, confronts and tries to understand both her subject matter and why we consider these ideas awkward.

I feel awkward discussing certain subjects, so as I was preparing for our discussion, I wanted to make sure that I was allowed to talk about cancer and other diseases and conditions such as West Nile Virus and COVID. She is a cancer survivor and has faced her mortality again and again. That’s a hard subject for a lot of people to talk about because we have to admit that we are mortal ourselves, but our end is one of the defining aspects of our lives. What makes cancer easier for her to talk about is her faith, which is another subject that a lot of artists avoid talking about. I am not of her religious denomination, but I was interested in the ways that she approaches it, and I was glad to speak of it openly. The fear often is that someone will start apostatizing, of course, but her art is about gratitude, not indoctrination.