The inspiration for this art doll figure came to me from a friend who showed me her art quilt made to honor Alzheimer's patients. It was beautiful and sad and wonderful and poignant. Sadly my Mother-in-law has been an Alzheimer patient for many years. All of my feelings for her were unleashed into the desire to create something of my own to reflect the pain of this disease.
BUT, I found that as I worked on this figure my thoughts on 'memory' went in another direction. Thinking about memories I realized how much they are with me each day and wondered why I would remember some things and forget others. Why would a moment when I was four years old and in the park with my Mother come into my mind but something that was probably much more important happening more recently disappear from my thoughts. What makes a memory? Why do we remember some events and forget others? Why do some memories come back to us when we least expect them to?
All of these thoughts swirled through my head as I added stitch after stitch to "Memory". What started out as a 'sad' piece of work had turned into a whole batch of thoughts on what 'memory' actually is. The one true thing that I learned as this piece of fabric became what is it, is that each day I am making new memories. Some of them will become a part of me and my life and others will drift into nothingness. Today I have a task to make each memory something I will delight in coming back to in a year or two or three.
"Yesterday is but today's memory, and tomorrow is today's dream". - Kahlil Gibran
