Arts and Compassion

Creative Practice Week 2      

             For my creative practice blog week 2, I chose to listen to my mom who is still alive at 85 and write a poem from our conversations. I talk every night on the phone to my mom, my closest dearest friend, to check on her since she lives alone in her home in Oregon while I am in Arizona. This week’s prompt and learning materials had me questioning after all these years talking to her each night; do I take the time to really listen to her? Do I let her tell me her story each day? So I decided to focus on listening as an act of love toward my mom each night, letting her do most of the talking and I transcribed our conversations for 6 straight days.

            Here is some background on my mom: she is 85 years old, lives alone in her home since my dad died five years ago, has typical illnesses for her age, manages an online bookstore with over 3000 books, recently stopped driving and hired a caregiver to drive her around two times a week. She is aging in place, very well!

Alive at Eighty Five

Day 1

At eighty-five it’s good to be alive

no matter how hard it is.

I may have glaucoma, at least that’s what they say

eye drops prescribed.

I’m still going to fight.

It’s just one more thing for one more day.

I used to be afraid of using my walker

but it helps me to get around.

Used to be embarrassed; not now.

Day 2

I stir up memories of a trip to Texas.

My sight may be dimming

but reflections still remain relatively clear.

Another day another pill

more drops for my eyes.

Substitute caregiver drives me to the doctor

I found out my blood thinner’s too high.

Sold 6 books on the worldwide web

lots of things to do I’m tired.

Day 3

My daughter Linda came over to take me to the bank

I’m going to update my will.

But the bank told me it says I can’t move money without her.

I like the nice bank manager

he caught the glitch

now it’s back to the way things were.

Looking forward to tomorrow cause its errand day

I’ve got 5 more books to package up

when my ride arrives I’m on my way.

Day 4

Penny my regular caregiver came to pick me up

she genuinely cares about me.

Penny drives me to the post office and all over the place.

This running around is exhausting

but at least I’m moving

I don’t have any issues going at Penny’s pace.

I’m hungry now but can’t decide what to eat.

I’m tired but so is Penny

she seems worse off than me.

Day 5

I’m sleepy I was awake most of the night.

The smoke alarm kept chirping in my ear

my daughter Linda took it down but left the ladder in the hall.

She says I don’t do anything with my life

I should get out more.

That leaves me a little depressed and appalled.

I’m not going to listen to her advice.

She wants me put up in a nursing home

at my age I just need to be around people that are nice.

Day 6

Spring forward, fall back I forgot about that

I’m confused at what time it is.

The lawyer got my will worked out but no one explained.

This rain is relentless.

The cul-de-sac started to flood

but the drain was fixed when the neighbor came.

“Trick or Treat” I heard at my door from a cute little kid in a hat.

I love the kids and I love my home

I’m glad to be in my own home for that!

            
                   This week’s learning materials and assignments has brought immediate positive outcomes through a deeper awareness and understanding of how to listen as an act of love and compassion toward my family, friends and patients Taking the time to really listen, ask the right questions and genuinely care is effectively helping develop these valuable relationships. 

Arts and Compassion

Week 1 Creative Practice

Reflecting on Marc Chagall’s stain glass, The Good Samaritan, and how he illustrated compassion through a strong use of blue which he believed was the color of love, I was reminded of a what color(s) represent compassion for myself. This week’s creative practice was inspired by the two colors, indigo and white, that I discovered represented compassion in a dream I had several years ago. I never fully understood the meaning of the dream until I began to contemplate this week about the colors of compassion and study the Good Samaritan parable along with the compassion articles and radio talks.

In the dream a friend who I had not seen for many years phoned and wanted to come visit me. When he pulled up in his car and got out I could hardly recognize him, he was very sick and looked like he had leprosy. At first I was frightened by his appearance and thoughts of escaping this uncomfortable situation flooded my head, but compassion from my heart quickly began to consume me along with a strong desire to help him. Earlier that day I had been sewing prayer blankets so in my dream I told my friend I would be right back while I ran to my closet to retrieve one of the blankets for him.  Suddenly I heard a loud deep voice tell me, “No, give him one of these to wear,” and I looked down at a stack of thin indigo blue and white lace pattern garments. After peeling the top garment from the pile I handed it to my friend and instructed him to wear it because in the dream I believed it was going to help him become well again. Since my Good Samaritan compassion dream I’ve had an intense attraction to the colors indigo and white but never understood until now how they represent compassion.

While contemplating what I should create using the colors indigo and white for my creative practice a vision of a smaller white heart within a lacey white heart on blue emerged. This image represents compassion for me; it shows how within my heart I carry my AIM patients’ hearts.

I’ve been designing a painting on canvas, stencil, mod podge and sand art project for my weekly creative aging workshop and was inspired to explore this technique for creating the heart within in a heart idea. Here are some images of my creative process and the Colors of Compassion sand painting.

Arts in Medicine Advanced Professional Seminar Week 7 Creative Practice

          Reflecting on the course theme’s: Program Implementation: Boots on the Ground & the Bird’s Eye View: Advocacy and Visibility, I was inspired by the reading and template from the  Kellogg Foundation resource, Strategic Communication. Working through the template stirred creative ideas about project visibility, logos and slogans for my upcoming ArtMobile capstone project and week 7 creative practice.  

         
         I found creating a logo for the ArtMobile program, challenging at first until I started researching how to design a logo, and looked at pictures of famous logos like McDonalds, Shell and Mobile gasoline, Nike etc. I noticed that the most effective, memorable and visible logos were simple bold designs. So I began designing a logo for the ArtMobile program that would describe the specific aspects of the program in a simple design. Researching other logos with “wheels” was inspiring; I was drawn to the “Meals on Wheels” logo. An addition of an arts in health slogan I felt was necessary to express the program’s mission, and increase the visibility of the logo. Here is the logo I designed this week for the program and my creative practice.

The logo will be placed on the sides of the ArtMobile van.  I used a graphics program to copy a drawing and photos of a couple designs for the Ford Connect van I am considering for the ArtMobile program and added the logo to see how it might look/fit.

Researching, processing and creating the logo for the ArtMobile program was an enjoyable self-care creative experience. I am excited to design business cards, brochures, postcards and more with the logo to increase the program’s visibility.

Arts in Medicine Advanced Professional Seminar Week 5 Creative Practice

Reflecting on the readings from weeks 3, 4 and 5 on sustainability, grantwriting, program implementation, research and evaluation, I found a common thread that each subject/process is all about finding and asking a “good question”. The reading that resonated and inspired my creative practice for this week was Chapter 17 Section 4 of the Community Tool Box, Analyzing Root Causes of Problems: The “But Why?” Technique.

The "But why?" technique is one method used to identify underlying causes of a community issue. These underlying factors are called "root causes." The "But why?" technique examines a problem by asking questions to find out what caused it. Each time an answer is given, a follow-up "But why?" is asked. Identifying genuine solutions to a problem means knowing what the real causes of the problem are. Many solutions may apply to your problem, so it's up to you to find the one that fits it better. The "But why?" analysis by itself doesn't lead automatically to the best solution. It just points out many paths you may take (Community Tool Box, 2014).

While I was reading and studying this section I actually imagined a picture of a tree with its roots and began contemplating how to create a tree that represents the “But Why” Technique and the common thread of asking a “good question”.  The question mark, an interesting symbol/shape, I realized could be used to form all the different parts of a tree; the roots, trunk, branches, leaves and roots.  So I started playing around with creating a tree to represent the “But Why” technique using different size question marks on my graphics program.

Reference

University of Kansas. (2014) Community Tool Box: Retrieved from:http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/analyze/analyze-community-problems-and-solutions/root-causes/main 

Arts in Medicine Advanced Professional Seminar

Week 1 Creative Practice

Reflecting on this week’s theme Ethics and Human Nature, I really enjoyed and felt inspired by the reading, Aristotelian Ethics. Here are a few excerpts from the reading that inspired my creative practice artwork this week. 

Aristotle insists that ethics is not a theoretical discipline: we are asking what the good for human beings is not simply because we want to have knowledge, but because we will be better able to achieve our good if we develop a fuller understanding of what it is to flourish. In raising this question—what is the good?—Aristotle is not looking for a list of items that are good. He assumes that such a list can be compiled rather easily; most would agree, for example, that it is good to have friends, to experience pleasure, to be healthy, to be honored, and to have such virtues as courage at least to some degree.

Aristotle thinks everyone will agree that the terms “eudaimonia” (“happiness”) and “eu zên” (“living well”) designate such an end. Aristotle's conclusion about the nature of happiness is in a sense uniquely his own. No other writer or thinker had said precisely what he says about what it is to live well. But at the same time his view is not too distant from a common idea. As he himself points out, one traditional conception of happiness identifies it with virtue (1098b30–1). Aristotle's theory should be construed as a refinement of this position. He says, not that happiness is virtue, but that it is virtuous activity. Living well consists in doing something, not just being in a certain state or condition. It consists in those lifelong activities that actualize the virtues of the rational part of the soul.

He needs to discuss honor, wealth, pleasure, and friendship in order to show how these goods, properly understood, can be seen as resources that serve the higher goal of virtuous activity. He vindicates the centrality of virtue in a well-lived life by showing that in the normal course of things a virtuous person will not live a life devoid of friends, honor, wealth, pleasure, and the like. Virtuous activity makes a life happy not by guaranteeing happiness in all circumstances, but by serving as the goal for the sake of which lesser goods are to be pursued (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, 2015).

I am in the process of creating a group ceramic tile art installation with the participants of my weekly Creative Aging Workshop at an assisted living center. Here are a couple of photos of the project still in progress.

I still had to make my tile for the project and  was inspired from the reading to create a tile that reflected a “Well-Lived Life”. I felt having the words; happiness, virtue, honor, friendship, pleasure and wealth on the tile were appropriate for the group of older adults and to hang on the wall at the center. “Life’s Hand Print”, was created for the tile wall inspired by Aristotelian Ethics.

Reference

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2015). Aristotelian Ethics. Retrieved from: http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/aristotle-ethics/ 

Arts in Human Development - Creative Practice - Week 7

For my week 7 creative practice blog, I tried for my first time creating a vessel with paper clay, using the pinch pot technique, as a developmentally appropriate product for someone who is an older adult. Being a ceramic sculptor, I recently expressed in one of my discussion posts my desire to work with my patients using clay. My instructors suggested paper clay, because there is no dust, safe for the patients, can be painted and dries to a hardened surface similar to thin wood.  I purchased 2 small rectangular  packaged blocks of paper clay, which will fit perfect on my art cart. I have been interested in trying clay with my older adult patients, because I think it may spark their interest, help them with movement in their hands and overall lift their spirits to make them feel better.

Since I had not worked with paper clay before, I thought using a simple pinch pot technique would be good to see how similar it was to regular clay that I am used to.  I tried to push the paper clay's limits by making real thin edges, pinching lace on to the outside for texture, etc.  I really liked the clay and the way it felt, it molded nicely and it was very soft and easy to pinch, which would be good for an older adult patient.  The clay did not dry out while I was working on it and my hands were left clean instead of dry with clay on them. There was hardly any clean up. After I started getting comfortable with the paper clay I realized it reminded me of working with porcelain clay, which I absolutely love!  Once my vessel dries I plan to explore painting and carving the hardened paper clay.

I am so excited to try paper clay this week at the hospital with my older adult patients. I had a patient express to me how she did not like creating art however she had always wanted to try making something out of clay. I plan to have the patients make simple Christmas ornaments, tiles they stamp and paint and pinch pots.  One idea I had would be for them to create a “Life Memory Vessel”.  This would be a pinch pot with a lid that they would make with the paper clay and paint. It would have a design of their name on the outside.  Next I would have them on a piece of paper write or I would write for them a special memory of their life and roll it up like a scroll and put it inside the life memory vessel.

Arts in Human Development - Creative Practice - Week 6

For my week 6 creative practice blog, I have learned how to make a basket as a developmentally appropriate product for someone who is in adulthood.  Since I am in the adult stage of development; established in a career, family life and under the age of 60 years old, I decided to create a product that I would enjoy.  Being a potter, familiar with vessel forms, I have always been intrigued with basketry but never had the opportunity to learn how to make them.   I have for a very long time wanted to make basket vessels and have often thought simple basketry and weaving would be a good tool on my art cart for adults.  Last week in Jamaica, I met an artist who makes baskets. He had a sign that said, “Learn to make a basket”.  I was so excited for this opportunity to finally get to learn how to make a basket, and be able to use it for my patient bedside art.  So I let him know I would love to make one. He grabbed a chair for me to sit next to him and began to teach me how to make a basket.  This was a very special time of creating and sharing artist to artist.  He taught me all about how he prepares the “five finger vines”, how to start, weave and finish a basket. We sat together for a while making baskets and visiting.  He shared about being an art teacher and his culture.  I shared with him about my arts in medicine studies and practice. 

  

When we were finished I purchased some of his baskets for future basketry ideas since I could now look at the baskets and know how to make them.  He gave me a start to another basket so I would remember how to start them and also gave me a rolled bundle of the vines to complete it later at home. 

Later, just for more fun, I decided to add color to my basket using crayons and working with the natural weaved design of the basket. 

Learning how to finally make baskets brought a feeling of fulfillment in my adult stage of life. I am looking forward to exploring creating baskets of different sizes and shapes out of a variety of materials. Basketry can be appropriate for all the adulthood groups; ages 25-35 who are in an established career but don't have a family, or moms with small children.  I have been showing my basket to many of the mother’s of the young children I teach and my adult friends of various ages. With excitement they have said, “You made that basket, I would love to learn how to make a basket”. My response, “I would love to teach you, it is so much fun”.