“It is through memory that we are able to reclaim much of our lives.”
— Frederick Buechner
Some memories rise above the ordinary flow of time. They linger with unusual clarity—moments at kitchen tables, beside warm fires, or in sanctuaries dappled with colored light—where the familiar suddenly feels charged with deeper meaning. In such moments, reminiscence becomes a form of transcendence. Time does not diminish significance; it deepens it.
Memories become liturgies with a power to form us. To remember is to encounter the past as something still alive within us, shaping who we are in the present. Much of what we believe, including our sense of the sacred, our habits of prayer, and our understanding of love and belonging, first comes to us through family. We inherit the faith of our mothers and fathers through stories told and retold, special objects kept close, and traditions passed gently from one generation to the next. Our homes become sacred spaces of formation.
These ideas animate Reminiscence and Transcendence. Through collage, sound, and animation, Monique Aiuto and Laura Summerhill reflect on the artifacts, gestures, and rhythms of family life that form our earliest understanding of the world and of ourselves. Their work moves both backward and forward through time, weaving memory with the present moment.
Together, the artists suggest that memory is not static but transformative. Through repeated acts like holding an object, collaging with layers of ephemera, recalling a story, or preserving a sound, we begin to see how the sacred often appears in the ordinary passage of time, carried quietly by remembering the lives of those who came before us.
“Compassion … can grow from the smallest moments of remembering, ignited sometimes by a single image—a cracked hand or polished shoes. ”
Marilyn McEntyre
Monique Aiuto (b. 1973) is a New York City-based visual artist and musician who has spent over two decades exploring the intersections of faith, family, and domestic life. Educated at The Cooper Union (BFA 1996) and Columbia University (MFA 1998), she has worked in early childhood development for 20 years as an educator for preschool children and children with autism, and currently as an atelierista at a Reggio Emilia–inspired preschool. During this time she has maintained a dual practice as a collage artist and as one-half of the indie-folk duo The Welcome Wagon. Her work functions as a visual liturgy, translating the quiet rhythms of home and her work in early childhood development into vibrant, tactile compositions. Aiuto’s current practice focuses on “ephemera” inherited from her paternal grandmother, using those aritifacts–wrapping paper, fabric, and vintage greeting cards—to anchor generational memory into physical form. By layering these discarded materials, she transforms fragile history into a living witness, inviting viewers to find sacred beauty in the overlooked details of the everyday. Monique lives in Brooklyn with her family.
Laura Summerhill (b. 1972) was born in Kentucky, grew up in Gainesville, Florida, and moved to New York City to pursue graduate studies, earning a PhD in Clinical Social Work from New York University. She also holds degrees from Columbia University, Bank Street College of Education, and Florida State University. Laura has worked as a clinician, researcher, and educator, specializing in trauma, adoption, neurodiversity, spirituality, and mind-body approaches to healing. Alongside her professional work, she maintains an interdisciplinary artistic practice that includes textiles, collage, animation, ink, watercolor, and writing. Her work often incorporates fiber-based materials and found objects, layering personal and collective histories to explore memory, family, and the emotional textures of life. Drawn to nostalgia and reflection, Laura explores the traces of past experiences and documents the subtle rhythms of everyday life. Laura lives and works in Houston, where she maintains a private practice and is on faculty at Texas State University.
