Alzheimer's: I'm Here, Where Are You?


* Tools: electric drill, hammer, stapler, screwdriver, cast iron weights


* Materials: wooden crate circa 1930s, green and blue flannel pajama bottoms, swamp boots,

gloves, block of wood 2x9x7.5 inches, broken watch, single sock with hole in toe, 1970s business cards,

naturalist patches from work uniform, rubber insects not to scale, photographs, VNA red folder with

Alzheimer's Association pamphlets "Basics of Alzheimer's Disease", worn out paintbrush, small tissue box,

crayons, glue, wire, tape, staples


The significant piece was a small red tissue box with a re-creation of an actual message scrawled

in purple crayon by my husband while in a sub-acute rehab following gall bladder surgery.


My process is to work standing with a 360 degree vantage point. The crate served as a base upon which

everything was placed temporarily, then rearranged. The tissue box remained the focal piece, the

crayons scattered and glued, purple the only one used, broken in half.


This took 2 weeks to complete with deliberate empty places that could be filled in the future.

After any art I make, there's a period of love/hate. After the pieces were rejected,

both sons asked if I wanted them moved to another room. I said, "Maybe I should just throw them

away," and they were horrified until I explained always feeling that way after making art.


Coincidentally, I just entered this piece into another juried show because it's visually the most

evocative. The rules for that are 8 pages with very different criteria due to the gallery space being

county government as well as state sponsored. There's some part of me that is considering this as a

way to honor loved ones lost to this disease which would involve collaboration and hearing others'

stories. Perhaps.


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