Picture People

So I posted below a picture of the Luminary bag my cousin Keane drew to represent the siblings in memory of my dad.  I mentioned that I wanted to message Keane to find out the meaning behind the drawings and who each one 'stood' for.  He replied to my request.

So here is the story behind the idea:

The idea was Keane's but the answers for the symbolism lay with his mom, my aunt Gay.   Having just returned from a Zen type retreat in BC (I'm sure that does not nearly sum up the magnitude of what it was), he walked her through a brief meditation to quiet her mind and then he had her write whatever word comes to mind as he said the name of each of her siblings.  He then took those words and drew them as images.  The images surrounded the one that stood for my dad with interconnections between all of them that then completed the pictures.

Kit - reading (the book)
Nadine - baking (the oven)
Lana - smoking (the cigarettes)
Tim - quiet  (the mouse)
Laura - dancing (the foot)
Sheila - talking (the phone)
Michelle - laughing (the spiral design)
Terry - singing (the bird)
Gabrielle - courageous (the lion)

My aunt refused to say a word for herself so Keane came up with something himself and it was 'lion', because he sees her as courageous and strong.  And he's so right.  He suggested they may seem like shallow interpretations of people but if these are the words my aunt's subconscious brought forward then there's got to be deeper meaning in them for sure. Perhaps, these are related to fond or strong memories she associates with everyone?


I love my aunt and cousin even more for being willing to do this for us.

It's funny because I guessed the book right!  The book was my dad!