On New Year’s Day 2024, I awoke with an arts and crafts idea: to create a collage with my mom. Over the past year, as her world gradually shrank, she found solace in meticulously cutting paper towels into small pieces for me to use. Another of her activities was poring over supermarket flyers late into the night, a ritual she enjoyed while watching TV. I decided to merge her two pastimes, wondering if she would be interested. To my delight, she embraced the idea. She cuts out selected items, while I handle the pasting. When she’s unsure about what to cut, she consults with me, mimicking the experience of shopping at the supermarket. I can’t predict how long her cognitive abilities will hold, but I remain hopeful that new neural connections will continue to form. She takes joy in cutting while I paste, and seeing the finished collages brings a profound smile to her face. Together, we’ve created 22 collages and counting.
See the collection Re(Constructing) Memories.
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Mom looking proud of our creation.
Mom in deep thought on what she is going to cut.
Mom looking at the artwork we just created.
Mom looking proud of our creation.
Mom actively looking for items to cut out from a large supermarket flyer.
Our messy living room with paper clipping strewn all over the place. Yes, very much like serious art studios.
Artworks are spead out in the living room, allowing her to look at the creations we work on together.
Paper towels that mom would cut into little folded paper napkins for me to use. As time went on, the little napkins were becoming smaller, perhaps a sign of her vision/world becoming smaller as well.
Me making a mess with the cutouts/clippings.
Mom’s current favourite collage, filled with flowers and cakes with the colour red dominating the background.
Detailed closeup of one of mom’s favorite collages.
A new year’s themed collage in the Year of the Dragon.
For the longest time, this was mom’s favourite because fo the striking burger and shakes.
Our first collage together.
