City is canvas for artist with a giant heart

In her studio in Wong Chuk Hang, artist Evelyna Liang-kan has an interesting chair "cover" - it is of an elderly woman with big arms, so you can sit on her lap and wrap her arms around you.

The cover is based on Granny Li, an elderly blind woman Liang-kan met during her art workshops for people with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. She asked Liang-kan to sit on her lap, thinking the artist was a young girl, so Liang-kan did. The woman began to sing an old fisherman's song in Cantonese.

"These elderly people with late stage dementia are often forgotten," Liang-kan says. "It's like they don't exist anymore, so I want people to remember the elderly. Even if they have lost their own memories, if you ignite them they will give you their being."

Liang-kan's art interventions in seniors' homes have led to her giving papers on the subject at City University's psychology department and at symposiums abroad. She also worked on the Grandpa Grandma Memory Boxes, a project supported by the Art Promotion Office and involving the JC Rehabilitation Centre home for the elderly in Wong Chuk Hang.

The artist, now 64, has used her artistic gifts for the community for many years. She has long been known for her Art in Hospital project, working with patients and volunteers to create murals in hospitals to make them less frightening, particularly for children, and on art projects with long-stay patients.

These days, she says, she is less involved due to stellar work by Grace Cheng, her longtime collaborator.