This week, we’d like to introduce you to one of our community members who has a passion for wordplay — Jason Cathcart! For the past year, Cathcart has been collecting the crosswords from our pages and pasting them on his wall after he finishes them.
When did you start the crossword wall and what inspired you to keep the crosswords from our pages and put them up? It started last year as a collage on a different wall, with grids from any newspaper I could get my hands on. The Independent’s crosswords were consistent and looked nice together, so when I moved to a new space, I decided to plaster my room with them like wallpaper. It turned out just as I pictured it; I like how the different black square patterns look next to each other.
Have you always done the crossword or did you start just for this project? Is there a “best part” to the process? I only got into crosswords in 2023, but it quickly became an obsession. I found myself looking forward to Thursdays, just to grab the newspaper for the crossword. I honestly feel pretty guilty, as I hardly read the rest of it. As someone who does Rubik’s Cubes and escape rooms, crosswords give me that same feeling of satisfaction where everything clicks perfectly.