You bring the stories. I bring the art
Together, we give those memories new life.
A gentle creative experience where your memories can become something you can see, touch, keep and share.
No art experience is needed. Just your stories, your memories, and a little time together.
Every Memory Holds a Story
There are moments in our lives that stay quietly with us
A place. A person. A sentence we still remember. A photograph. A feeling. A small moment that, somehow, helped shape who we are today.
Art Beyond Memory is an invitation to bring one of those memories to the surface and give it a place to live.
Through simple creative techniques, conversation and personal guidance, your memory slowly becomes a visual page something meaningful that belongs only to you and your story.
How Art Beyond Memory Began
My name is Marcia Aftimus, and Art Beyond Memory began with my own memories.
I was born in Brazil and now live in Canada, far from my two children. Being away from them made me think about the many experiences from my life that they had never known — stories I had carried with me for years.
One day, I decided to put one of those memories on paper. As I painted and drew, something unexpected happened.I wasn't simply remembering the experience. I was reconnecting with it.
Happy memories became something I could celebrate and preserve. More difficult memories could be looked at from a different perspective, with new colors, images and meaning. And I began to realize that our memories don't have to remain only inside us.
They can become something we can see, hold, share — and one day leave for the people we love.
That personal experience became Art Beyond Memory.
A Little About Me
I’m Marcia Aftimus, creator of The World Beyond the Surface, an art project developed for healthcare and hospice environments My work includes pieces created for a hospital in Duncan and for Cowichan Hospice.
At 66, I have become increasingly interested not only in making art, but in what art allows us to remember, express and share with one another.
How the Experience Works
Before We Meet
I will invite you to choose something connected to a memory you would like to explore.
It might be a photograph, a few written words, a phrase, a place, an object, a person, or simply a story you remember.
You will share that with me approximately one week before we meet.
From what you send me, I will prepare a personal creative kit especially for your story, so that when we meet, we already have a beautiful place to begin.
Our First Creative Session
Our first session is about creating the world around your memory.
Using simple and playful techniques such as paint, sponges, stencils, stamps, colored pencils and markers, we begin by creating backgrounds, textures, colors and layers.
There is no pressure to know how to draw or paint. There is no right or wrong way to do it.
I will be beside you throughout the process, showing you simple possibilities and helping you discover what feels right for your page.
Each session lasts approximately 2–3 hours, allowing everyone to work at their own pace.
Our Second Creative Session
During our second session, the story begins to come alive.
We bring your personal elements into the background you created — photographs, images, words, handwriting, details, colors and textures.
Little by little, the memory takes its own shape.
Some pages may feel complete at the end of our time together. Others may continue to grow later, as new thoughts or memories appear.
A memory does not have to have a final ending and neither does your page.
Art Beyond Memory
A Personal Experience, Shared or One-on-One
Art Beyond Memory can be experienced individually or in a very small group of up to four people.
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In a one-on-one experience, our time is completely centered around your story and your creative process.
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In a small group, something else can happen.
Although everyone is working with a different memory, we are sharing the same human experience of remembering. There can be a quiet sense of connection in realizing that every person carries stories, emotions and experiences that have shaped their life.
We create individually, but we do not have to feel alone in our remembering.
You may come because you want to preserve one particular memory. But along the way, you may discover something else.
You may remember details you had forgotten.
You may discover that creating with your hands feels good.
You may want to make another page for another memory.
And perhaps one day, you will sit with your children, grandchildren, family or someone you love and say:
This happened.
This mattered.
This is part of who I am.
Your Experience Begins Before We Meet
Your experience begins when you share your story with me. from this moment, I am already working with your story. Every experience is prepared individually.
Before our first session, I take time to listen to what you would like to explore and personally prepare for your creative process. I research ideas, gather images and references, select materials and prepare elements that may help your memory find its way onto the page.
Your experience includes personalized preparation, your individual creative kit and materials, two guided creative sessions of approximately 2 to 3 hours each, and my personal support throughout the entire process.
Your first Art Beyond Memory experience does not have to be the last. As new memories emerge, you can continue creating with Marcia through individual creative session
Investiment:
Your Stories Matter
Art Beyond Memory is a welcoming space to honor these experiences through creativity, conversation, and time spent together.
F.A.Q.