Archive for the ‘Art’ Category

Sandra was an hour early for supper.

She sat motionless at the table by herself. I quietly sat down beside her with a box of crayons and a piece of paper.

“Let’s draw something, “ I said.
“I don’t draw,” she retorted. I explained that we could do something together.
“What are some things you liked to do when you were younger?” I asked.
“ All I did was take care of children and cook,” she replied.

I picked up a black crayon and drew an iron skillet. I handed the paper to Sandra and asked her to put something in the pan. She decided on eggs. She drew them. I added some other details and she colored the picture. As we did, we talked about her life and a lot about cooking. When she was finished, she wanted to hang it on her wall.

A week later, her roommate (who normally stays secluded in her room) came to the activity room and wanted a “skillet” picture too. “I want sausage gravy in mine,” she said. Hence….another skillet picture…

When there is pain, depression, or anxiety, art can soothe and heal. If allowed the freedom to do what is within, a specific style emerges over and over.

Pat says she likes people. She paints hundreds of them, lined up and with lots of color.

Laura over comes her fears and depression by letting paint flow from her brush in squiggly lines. The picture shown is only one of many that she has painted. Her eyes get happy when she paints.

Grizley is bedridden. The only way he is able to get through his day is through detailed drawings, usually cartoon style, highly detailed. It takes hours. He HAS hours, of course.

I go frequently to a facility that has a good mixture of men and women. I find it interesting that the ones who clamor to paint are men. We decided to call in Men’s Club. They gather and paint…and even allow the women to come and watch. As they paint together, they socially bond as they come alive to the arts. Notice that one gentleman is painting a portrait of the other.

Many times I end up not being prepared. A project was on the calendar that I was assigned to at the last minute. We were planning on filling cookie cutters with jolly ranchers and popping them in the oven. I read the directions out loud to a group of ladies who could not always think clearly, but had much life experience in the kitchen. I explained my lack of experience and started asking them what would work best. “Do you think we need waxed paper or Pam spray? Would foil work better? How many pieces of hard candy do you think it would take?” We muddled through it together as suggestions were made. We had failure and success. We had an end product, but in the end, along with laughter, we had more than that. We bonded together in the process of discerning the best courses of action.

Mary was recovering in bed for many weeks. I have known her for years and she had not ever tried her hand at painting, except for painting walls. I surprised her when I came into her room. I told her I had a big piece of cardboard and big brushes and paints. “Would you like to paint?”

“Well, I guess so,” she replied cooperatively. “You can’t do it wrong.”

I spread a plastic garbage bag over her sheet and I held the cardboard. She picked up the big brush and started painting with red. She picked up another brush with yellow in it and watched things change from red to orange. More colors appeared as she experimented. When she was finished, we looked at it from all directions and our imaginations went wild. We hung it on her wall.