Effect of Creating

I recently started thinking how creating has always been a way to either calm me or uplift me, depending where life has taken me. I started to remember the time my husband joined the Air Force and I had to move with him to Colorado. I was leaving behind everything that I knew and that  felt comfortable. I was working and going to school and all of my family and friends were in Miami. Not to mention a BIG change in the landscape and weather. As a young girl, suddenly having nothing happening in my daily life, I was down in the dumps. My husband told me to go to the base and find something of interest. I decided to join a ceramics class. I did not know a thing about molds, slip and glazing, but I was soon immersed in creating. My entire family received something I made while healing. Just as I was in the swing of a new passion, we had orders to move to Fort Walton Beach. 

The only ceramic piece I have made in 1976.

Another major change, no family, no friends, no ceramics and the hormonal changes because I was pregnant. I was ready to pack up and move to Miami. A friendly, elderly lady in the building, saw me pregnant, and lonely,  and decided to teach me how to knit and crochet. She had no idea, but she was my life-saver. She got me the supplies, which I could not afford, and asked me to join the knitting group in the building.......all seniors.  The creative side of me took off with a brand new passion. 

One of the many pieces I have made since then.

After the baby came, I was very busy, but soon needed to do something,  since the baby already had blankets, booties, hats, sweaters, and more. My husband again stepped in and said that I should go to the town's recreation center and see what I could take up. He would watch the baby and give me a few hours to disconnect. I joined an oil painting class. I always sketched, but knew nothing about colors and mixing them. The rest is now history. I continued to paint for the next thirty years. As retirement was approaching eight years ago, I took up watercolors and acrylics. I also started to sell my creations on line in preparation for those long hours that awaited me with nothing to do. I must say that creating is a way of life for me now. I tell everyone that  making art is much cheaper than paying for a therapist. 

My first oil painting done in 1977.

I Still Can....with Art

Dementia and Alzheimer are becoming common words in our vocabulary.  You may not have first hand experience in dealing with the ravages of this disease, but you may have a friend or neighbor that is trying to cope with an affected relative. The disease can turn the most brilliant mind into one that cannot remember what they did five minutes earlier or who they were in their previous lives. Coping is done on a day-to-day basis, since there are mood changes, emotional distress, agitation and even aggressive episodes. You never know which emotion, or how many, you may encounter on any given day.

It has been found that creative activity opens the emotional interiors of these patients. Painting is a non-verbal way to reach these patients and offer them the power of choices and decisions that they have lost in their daily lives. For those of us with a relative in a home setting, these art sessions can be accomplished with blank paper, coloring books, crayons, watercolors and allowing them time each day to relax and express themselves. 

 My Mom was an independent, happy woman, living alone a year ago, and is now a person requiring 24-hour care and lost in her own mind. My niece, Karina, an artist, brought her art supplies and brings her 8 year old daughter, Tiffany, to paint with her. My mom enjoys the family time, the creativity and my grand-niece calls it a “play date” with grandma. What could be better? Their creations are posted in her room as a reminder of what she created and what she is still capable of doing.

In some of the research I have done, I came across an international documentary. See write-up below:

"I Remember Better When I Paint is a 2009 feature length international documentary film about the positive impact of art and other creative therapies in people with Alzheimer's disease and how these approaches can change the way the disease is viewed by society. The film examines the way creative arts bypass the limitations of dementia disorders such as Alzheimer's and shows how patients' still-vibrant imaginations are strengthened "

Click here to view the trailer.

For now, we are caring for my Mom the best way we can, learning as we go and trying to find ways to bring a little normalcy into her new world.