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In Sketches, we follow artists through the creative process and explore the stories behind the art. And we consider, in turn, how art affects people's lives, whether by making or consuming it. This episode features Alice Planel-Frederiks, a Stroud-based artist and academic, whose project Victory March is a painful and funny graphic novel about taming grief, defeating depression and conquering motherhood. She has been working on the project since 2019, following the death of her 10-month old son Bas from meningitis. Across its pages of colourful panels in ink, pastel and watercolour she unpacks the experience of loss, and of the incredible love and support she and her husband received from friends, family and strangers. And we meet lifelong artist and music-lover Gerry Mahood at his home studio in Bournemouth. Gerry always knew he was adopted, but he never knew the facts of his origins or birth parents. Painting and music were a solace and an escape, but there was a big piece of the puzzle missing. At the age of 60, he decided to try to trace his birth mother. A process which has unlocked something for him personally and in his creative work. Produced by Mair Bosworth