My grandmother, Helen MacDougall Bethlem, with my father, William, inside a collaged frame I made with her instruction in 1999.

My grandmother was an artisan. Helen always found a way to work with her hands while exploring her creativity. Each time I came to visit her in Rio, it was something new - tapestry making, fabric dying, packaging design, sewing. Her interests would change with the tropical seasons, so she would glide towards a new medium, always maintaining the common denominator of handmade artistry. Each time I visited, she would show me her work, and teach me her acquired skills.

When I travelled from London to Rio to stay for the summer of 1999 (it was winter in Brazil), her newest practice was collage. Here is where she found her flow. She taught me the technique, and for the next five years until her passing, we'd spend hours of our summers and Christmases together, cutting and pasting while our favorite bad German cop show played in the background on her old TV.

We wrapped household things - frames, mirrors, boxes, coasters - in colors and patterns gathered from dated magazines. I still have a few of these precious objects in my small New York studio apartment. They are my treasured talismans, gently guiding me to also continue my own creative practice.