2021

Pastel and Charcoal on Paper

For two years, I photographed small piles of sticks and leaves placed near a driveway by a religious Sister who was experiencing the beginning signs of dementia. In my conversations with Sister, I discovered that her aim in this gathering ritual was to beautify the landscape and to calm her mind. The stick piles exist as ancient cairns, marking her daily walks. This is the second in a series of seven drawings. The drawings, when viewed from left to right, from full chroma to white on white evoke the physical, emotional, and relational progression from fullness to absence in one with dementia.