When someone close to you passes on, the grief can feel overwhelming. One of the ways to work through pain is by expressing your feelings through art. If you enjoy creative arts, let your abilities shine by creating a memorial. Or hire an artist to commemorate your loved one. You may want to recreate a cherished memory, commission a portrait, or write a song.
However, you choose to remember, there is an artistic medium that fits your budget, talents, and taste. Remember your loved one in your own unique way. Let’s look at nine innovative and creative memorial ideas.
Find Your Way
As you create a memorial, your memories will come through the beauty you create. Creating a memorial can help you work through grief and remember the good times with your loved one.
Another idea is to work with family members as you memorialize your loved one together. You can also commission someone to make these items with or for you.
1. An Heirloom Portrait
Work with oil or watercolor to create an original work memorializing your loved one. Draw inspiration from a picture you have. Or make a work that is more modern using your deceased loved one’s favorite colors or patterns.
You can even order framed prints of the work once it’s finished. Give framed prints to close family members. Or feature your art in a card or bulletin passed out at a memorial service.
2. A Book or Poem
If you’re a writer or know one, you can write a memorial short story, biography, graphic novel, or even a comic book. As a wordsmith, memorialize your loved one with the written word and get creative with any illustrations. Publish online or make copies for your close family members.
3. Memorial Sewing
Weave favorite memories throughout a quilt to honor your loved one. Remember your loved one with each stitch. Make several and give to family members in honor of your loved one. Make one for yourself so that you tuck into bed each night with cherished memories.
If you enjoy knitting, make a sweater in the deceased’s favorite color or pattern. Every time you wear it, remember the good times together. Or make scarves for each sibling or child of your loved one.
4. Make a Scrapbook
You can make an online scrapbook by creating a memorial social media page for everyone to post on. Facebook lets you memorialize your loved one’s page after their death. Encourage everyone to share images of their memories, stories, poems, and anything else.
Keep the page as a lasting memorial that all can post on each year. Celebrate your loved one’s birthday and post anytime you want to share your grief or memories with fellow family members.
Or you can make a physical scrapbook. You could display the book as a feature of a memorial service. Or ask each person invited to the memorial to contribute a picture or card. After making the scrapbook, keep it where others may take pictures of it or visit you and look at the finished product. If you enjoy visitors, you will have a good reason to invite them over.
5. A Documentary Movie
Make a video yourself by interviewing the family. Or hire a digital arts media company to make a journalistic-style movie about your loved one. Depending on your available funds, the videographer could meet with loved ones separately or interview guests at the memorial. The finished product may be shared on social media and through DVDs as needed.
6. Write a Song
Remember your loved one by writing a song you can share. Or pen an ode and hire a musical artist you know to write music for your lyrics. Often, grief brings up intense feelings of loss, best shared through music. The written word can fall short, but music speaks to the soul.
Another idea is to dedicate a song to your loved one on social media and chat with others about why it is so dear to your heart when you think of your loved one.
7. Serve a Dinner
Invite your family to a dinner serving the deceased’s favorite foods. So many family memories tend to come back with the smell or taste of a special meal.
You can make the foods all yourself or hire a caterer depending on your budget and tastes. Creating a beautiful table with sumptuous and delicious foods while creating a welcoming atmosphere is an art in itself. If you are a gifted cook, share your gifts with others through a dinner gathering.
8. Make Ornaments
The holiday season can be difficult with the loss of family members. You can make ornaments for each loved one to hang on their tree or in their house during the holiday season.
Go online to look for ideas and see where your creative side takes you. You can fashion ornaments from almost anything, so use materials that help you connect with your memories and the life they lived.
9. Create a Memorial Travel Map
If you enjoy drawing maps and labeling trips, perhaps a map of a loved one’s travels could bring back lovely memories to all of the family. A map can remind you all how your loved one seized each day for living to the fullest.
Print their life journey in memorial handouts or make an artistic map and give out laminated copies. Alternatively, use software to make a map online and then share it on social media. Add links on the map to images of your loved one enjoying each place they traveled to for extra flare.
Get Started
No matter what medium you work in to create your art, let it be a memorial to your loved one’s life essence and vision. Every life is a unique creation. Celebrating another’s contribution to the world as an individual is an inspiring endeavor. Follow your instincts and heart as you design your tribute. This time of loss is your grief journey; it is your own to make. Contribute to the collective memory of your loved one while finding your inspiration again.
We Can Help
At Renaissance Funeral Home, we help you create beautiful memorial experiences with your loved ones. We understand that your family needs time and space to share your feelings of loss together. Our facilities include room to gather together and spend the time you need with your family. We respect your unique traditions and creative ideas and work with every religious affiliation, culture, and belief system. Every family is uniquely different, each decedent worthy of a memorial. Contact us today and find out how we can help you remember your loved one.
