Kathleen To

My paintings begin with toys: small, familiar objects that once filled entire worlds. I’m drawn to how they hold traces of us, how their plastic smiles and worn edges whisper stories of comfort, play, and quiet companionship. In painting them, I’m not just revisiting childhood but reassembling it, piecing together the fragments that memory has blurred.

Each toy becomes a stand-in for something lost yet deeply felt. Their bright colours and soft forms speak of joy, but beneath them lingers something unsettled; the ache of time passing and the strangeness of recognising yourself in something no longer alive. Through dense arrangements of toys and dreamlike atmospheres, I try to capture that tension between delight and melancholy, between what is remembered and what can never return.

Painting for me is an act of remembrance. The toys become anchors, not just for nostalgia but for the shifting landscapes of who we once were and who we have become.