Shadow Puppets (2023) is about a childhood memory of mine. When my brother and I were about the age of 3 and 6, we spent a wonderful golden afternoon with our mom playing shadow puppets on the closet door. The usual suspects——a dog, a swan, a rabbit, and a dove——made their appearance, but the titular character of this story was my mom's creation: a frail, old lady with knuckles for gums who squealed in a high-pitched, nasal voice. Now, whenever my mom misses me and my brother, she would send a picture to our family group chat of that shadow. She would also sometimes answer our family FaceTime calls as that frail, old lady, saying, "Do you remember, do you remember, do you remember me?" Shadow Puppets is a gift to my mother who, through this childhood memory and many others, taught me and my brother joy.
