By Jenna Mamorsky

A devastating tragedy, such as Sept. 11th often leads to an overwhelming loss for words – especially when the tragedy hits close to home. How to express the unspeakable is a very difficult undertaking for any individual, but it becomes an even more daunting task when you consider expressing the grief for an entire country.

Recently, 17 year old Ali Millard and 34 year old architect Michael Arad have became renowned memorial makers of the 9/11tragedy, successfully expressing the grief that was felt around the world in vastly different ways. Millard’s memorial, named Art for Heart, grew out of the loss of her step dad in the 9/11 tragedy. “After 9/11, everywhere you turned there were images of the burning buildings in the newspapers and magazines,” said Millard. “I decided to change those images and organize them by making a big collage piece of work.”

She soon realized that there were others, especially young children, who were probably having difficulty in expressing their feelings about loss. “It’s sometimes very difficult to express things with words,” said Millard. “My painting teacher always says, ‘Painting is not about the result, it’s about the process and what you go through to get there and what you learn in getting there. Sometimes it’s easier just to express yourself in a way that isn’t necessary for other people, but it is for you.”

So, working with the 92nd Street Y and many other organizations that were only too eager to contribute, Millard found out quickly that there were hundreds of children needing to find a way to express their grief. Given one square foot canvases to paint personal remembrances of their parents, their aunts, uncles and other family members, children painted images that are messages to their loved ones, pictures of the towers on fire with a line, ‘Daddy was here,’ and other compelling heartfelt memories that show how much these people are missed and how deeply loved they were.

These individual canvases are then sewn together onto five by five foot frames. Currently there are five frames, however a new program beginning in February, Art for heart Sundays, will increase the opportunity for young people to share their personal tributes with their peers and the world. “[This] really gave individuals a chance to express themselves and show how they are going to carry the life of the person who was lost on Sept. 11th and how they still live on through these children,” said Millard.

Art For Heart will find a semi-permanent home at the Museum of Natural History at the end of February and will travel to schools and libraries across the United States before it finds what Millard hopes will be a permanent home at the site of the World Trade Center.

Going from the personal to the monumental, 5201 people hoped to have their drawings chosen for the memorial that will be built at the site of the World Trade Center. Israeli citizen Michael Ahrad’s “Reflecting Absence,” won the competition. There has been a lot of controversy surrounding Arad’s design, the timing of the competition (some people thought that the final decision was too rushed), and the fact that the victims’ families were not included in any way. Others, such as Robert Sterns, Dean of the Yale School of Architecture, believed that this undertaking, by its very nature was very difficult because no matter when it’s done, it’s very hard to express everyone’s thoughts and produce a lasting memorial. “[Creating a memorial] is one of the great challenges that confronted those involved in the memorialization of the Trade Center disaster,” Sterns said. “It’s possibly the single greatest challenge we’ve encountered in the last fifty years.”

How does an architect express unspeakable grief? While Sterns said that architecture is not just nuts and bolts, it is still hard to imagine how material objects can aptly express the solace and comfort we all seek in a memorial. “Ancient civilizations used the role of water, fire, or cutting a deep hole into the earth as artistic expressions,” Sterns said. “Each of these various solutions came forward for the Trade Center memorial.”

“Reflecting Absence” uses two large reflecting pools, with water cascading down the sides, thirty feet deep to mark where the Trade Towers once stood. The sides of the pools will be inscribed with the names of the victims of 9/11.

The question remains -- has this memorial met the public’s expectations? Have all of the feelings and emotions that surround Sept. 11th been placed into an architectural design? “It’s a complicated issue,” said Sterns. Perhaps only time will tell.