Third Place in Show . . . First Place in Artful Aging!

Pterodactyl

Sam Hanselman’s entry Pterodactyl has been awarded 3rd place in the 36th Annual Juried Art Show at Hopkins House Gallery of Contemporary Art. Congratulations, Sam! But the really interesting news is that when Sam was awarded 3rd place, the jurors had no idea she was 90 with dementia!

Sam is Teaching Artist Barbara Hanselman's mother. Barbara shares her mother's artful journey:

Sam, who is 90 and suffers from dementia, has finally found something she can 'get lost in' and feel a sense of accomplishment about - I call it painting with tissue paper. Sam has always loved color but was never encouraged to use color alone to create a work of art. There was nothing freeing about her past experiences with water color, pastels & colored pencils and as a result, making ART for her became synonymous with failed struggles. Now that is no longer the case; painting with tissue paper requires no formal training - if someone can put glue on a board and rip paper, they are on their way to making a masterpiece! It's amazing how some Mod Podge glue, recycled mat boards from a local frame shop and torn tissue paper from Target can be the means of self expression so desperately needed. I am convinced that people who suffer from dementia & depression yearn to tell the world of their angst and this (as well as clay which I teach) are wonderful ways to do so.

If you are interested in seeing Sam's art in person, here are the exhibit details:

The 36th Annual Juried Art Show

Hopkins House

Gallery of Contemporary Art

250 South Park Drive

Haddon Township, NJ 08108

The Opening Reception will be held

Saturday, October 23rd from 2 to 4pm

The exhibition and reception are open to the public and free of charge.The show runs from October 23rd to November 22nd, 2010.

Read about Barbara Hanselman's creative journey in clay on her blog BH Claysmith and view her art-making videos on YouTube.

Rita Hayworth, Alzheimer's & a Life Worth Living . . .

The London TimesOnline has a great article Fighting Alzheimer's With a Touch of Beauty.  People who appear to be lost to the world through this devasting disease can still be reached through art, literature and music. Rita Hayworth, known as the “Love Goddess” in her heyday, was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 1981, at just 63 years old.

Hayworth’s behaviour could be nightmarishly difficult. She suffered from the anxiety, aggression and agitation common to Alzheimer’s, but as the disease progressed she found something that soothed her mood and gave her a focus — painting. As her mind disintegrated, she worked away at an easel in her apartment, producing beautiful, detailed likenesses of flowers. "So many people give up with this disease," says the princess [Princess Yasmin Aga Khan, Hayworth’s daughter], who is now president of Alzheimer’s Disease International, the umbrella organisation for Alzheimer’s associations around the world, “but it brought her peace of mind and helped her to relax."

“The development of new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s is helping people live a little bit longer,” says John Zeisel, founder of Hearthstone, a pioneering program caring for people with Alzheimer’s. “What we’re asking ourselves is, how do we make that life worth living?”

The article points out the we need to get away from constant questioning of people with dementia, which only adds to their confusion and sense of failure. Rather than ask if your loved one knows who you are, Zeisel says it is ...

“... better to walk in, take her by the hand and say, 'I’m your daughter and I love you.' And smile. You’ll reach the bit of the brain hard-wired to respond. If you are looking at a painting, don’t test her on whether she can remember who it is by: instead, open a conversation about the shapes and colours.”

“The development of new drugs to treat Alzheimer’s is helping people live a little bit longer,” says Zeisel. “What we’re asking ourselves is, how do we make that life worth living?”

This article is well worth reading in full.  Go here to see what more Zeisel has to say.