What to Do With a Loved One’s Art After They Die

When a loved one dies, one of the most difficult tasks we’re left with is sorting through their belongings and deciding what to keep and what to give away. This becomes even more challenging if the person was creative and left behind paintings, poetry, music, or other works that held deep meaning to them.

What happens to it all?

Family members may argue over who should inherit certain pieces, or feel guilty about parting with work that represented their loved one’s passion or life’s work.

The reason is simple: art carries a different weight. It isn’t just “stuff.” It reminds us who that person was, their hopes and their dreams. It is proof not only that they lived, but how they saw the world. Letting go of those works can feel like a betrayal, like losing them all over again.

I know this personally.

In 2017, I lost my son. In the midst of my grief, I opened boxes he had packed away and found artwork, song lyrics, journals, and the beginning of a novel. Pages filled with thoughts he hadn’t spoken out loud. Lyrics that revealed feelings deeper than I had realized. Characters he had just begun to breathe life into.

It was comforting. And it was devastating.

I remember reading one of his essays and asking myself, What am I going to do with all of this?

My son wanted to be a writer. A month before he passed, he told me he had started writing a book about his life. After years of struggling with addiction, he wanted to warn others who were heading down the same road. He sent me passages and asked what I thought. Was it good enough to get published? Did he have what it takes to be a real author?

He wanted validation. I gave it to him because I believed in his talent, and because I wanted him to have hope. To believe there was still something ahead of him.

Now I was sitting there reading his words, knowing he would never finish the book himself.

The thought of his writing fading into obscurity was heartbreaking. But I also didn’t know what to do with it. Was I supposed to keep it in a box? Share it? Try to publish it? Was it all for nothing?

As I began speaking with other families, I realized how common this experience is. So many of us are left asking what to do with a loved one’s art after they die. Paintings leaning against walls. Notebooks filled with poetry. Unfinished songs saved on phones and laptops. Work that mattered deeply to the person we lost.

Grief already asks so much of us. Having to decide what happens to their creative legacy shouldn’t add to that weight.

That realization is what led me to create The Artist Lives. It was born from that moment, surrounded by my son’s words and art, knowing they deserved more than to sit unseen in a closet.

Creative work is more than objects. It is a voice. It is a presence. It is evidence that a person existed and mattered.

And that alone is reason enough to preserve it.

If you are facing this decision yourself, pause before throwing anything away. Document it. Preserve it digitally. Give yourself time.