PATTERNS

Visual artist and professional nurse Gaydos observes major and minor moments from her life through the lens of spirituality and art.

The author, who grew up in the 1950s, approaches her memoir with the eye of a painter, “layering memories and reflections over character” in the same way that artists paint new images over old. In her account, memories connect to other memories, from mid-1980s Texas to early-1990s Colorado and beyond, and from adulthood to childhood and back again; her commentary on all these events is made richer by hindsight. Gaydos walks readers through a host of extraordinary and mundane moments, from a deeply transformational 10-day retreat to a Navajo reservation in the late 1980s to quiet reflections on the wonder of the Colorado landscape in 1992: “The sheer immensity of it emphasizes my insignificance, and yet I feel exalted, grateful. I am part and parcel of the magnificent wonder before me. Moving through this motionless moment, there is no distance of time or space between me and this astonishing spectacle.” Included in each chapter are images of Gaydos’ collages, based on the ancient technique of papier collé, in which pieces of paper are glued together to form a picture. The works, with their bold colors and muted, blurred images, each represent specific memories. Gaydos’ eloquent and warm narrative voice will encourage many readers to reflect on their own life experiences. Her self-professed influences are wide and varied, from Carl Jung to Joseph Campbell, and they seem to inspire her to fearlessly try new things, as when she tells of taking a trip in 1991 from Texas to the Omega Institute in Rhinebeck, New York, to attend a weeklong workshop led by a “well-known Russian iconographer.” As one reads of her boldness and pensiveness, one gets an engaging view into the author’s mind. Philosophy and spirituality seem to be the guiding lights in her life, but her observations encompass many other fields, as well.

A thoughtful, winding reflection that gently challenges readers to recognize the patterns of their own lives.