Artist Statement – Lest We Remember

This ceramic work stands as a quiet rebellion against forgetfulness. It challenges the comforting distance often found in commemoration. While Lest We Forget calls us to remember the bravery and sacrifice of Canadians during the Second World War, my piece questions whether we are truly honouring what happens in violence. In our modern world - one still shaped by war, oppression, and division-have we internalized the cost of peace, or merely paused to admire its symbols?

This work reflects on the brutal paradox: that remembrance without reflection can become ritual, and ritual without truth can lead to erasure. My sculpture mourns not only the lives lost, but the lessons unlearned. It is a plea for a deeper kind of memory-one that confronts the horror of war, the loss of youth and hope, and the silence of generations of women who bore its aftermath. Lest We Remember is not a call to nostalgia, but to awakening.