In My Mother’s Footsteps

“This project started with the discovery of an old envelope of negatives which I had developed, they were of my Mum, Elspeth and her family and her childhood idle of early life on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada.

Elspeth is now 91, she has dementia, and the photographs are memories of a precious and distant time that she remembers with amazing clarity.  They prompt conversations, laughter and tears which I have been recording, and every time we look at these together, another recollection like names of the dogs, people and their significance in Elspeth’s early childhood days.

The photographs have been a rich source of inspiration for a series of paintings; these are my imaginings of the colour and world where Mum lived. They are between reality and a dream place; they are the past which I am trying to rekindle so Mum can remember.”

Nicki Carlyon