I WONDER: ART + CARE + DEMENTIA

I WONDER: Art + Care + Dementia began with a wall painting that echoed the words “I wonder” in the Superstar Shadow font frequently used by Cathy Busby’s late spouse, Garry Neill Kennedy. This book circles around the idea of wonder in narrating each of their life stories, their life together, and how they went through Garry’s dementia decline—inside and outside the healthcare system, supported by friends, family, and their continued artmaking. This story outlines Garry’s Remembering Names, a list-making work that he began in the early 1970s, and that he returned to during his dementia years; his vigorous 18 Drawings; and his Arrangements, that were photographed by Cathy, documenting the organization of his belongings in his last years. These works are followed by Quarantine Countdown, Cathy’s daily ritual of painting 1/14th of Garry’s room in longterm care during a 14-day COVID quarantine period; Cathy’s I WONDER, a wall painting started in the bathroom at Parkview care facility in Vancouver, and later completed as a memorial wall painting at Art Metropole in Toronto. To complement these works, Dr. Melissa Andrew gives a family friend and geriatrician’s analysis of Garry and Cathy’s process of ‘creative dementia care,’ while curator Mandy Ginson brings her perspective on both Garry’s and Cathy’s other artworks into the conversation. The stories and artworks are divided using red iron oxide pages and sub-divided using yellow oxide pages, both important colours in Garry’s early work.

Artist
Cathy Busby

Writers
Melissa Andrew
Mandy Ginson

Publisher
Art Metropole

Publication Date
2025

Size
6 x 6 inches
134 pages

ISBN
978-1-989010-28-0