"Everyone, please close your eyes... Now, what is the first word that comes to mind when I say the word landscape?"
LAND, HORSES, SNAKE S, FLOWERS, TREES, MOUNTAINS, PLAINS, ANIMALS
"What different kinds of landscapes can you imagine?"
SEASCAPES, FORESTS, MOUNTAINS
LAND, HORSES, SNAKE S, FLOWERS, TREES, MOUNTAINS, PLAINS, ANIMALS
"What different kinds of landscapes can you imagine?"
SEASCAPES, FORESTS, MOUNTAINS
Today the group looked at the Philbrook's Contemporary Landscape exhibit made up of the museum's permanent collection of landscape paintings created by artists within the past 20 years. Earlier in the month I was walking around this gallery with Philbrook's Docent Coordinator, Roselle. She was having a busy morning and needed to walk away from everything to clear her head. When we approached the Brooks Anderson painting she stopped and let out a sigh. "This painting relaxes me... It reminds me of home. Can't you hear the waves?" She continued,"What I'd do to be there right now..." Roselle's reaction to this painting made me curious to see if the participants would have similar thoughts and feelings. So today, we looked at "Cathedral" by Brooks Anderson.
Opening the conversation, I told the group that we were going to focus on describing the painting together. "What do you see?" Almost everyone replied, "Big rocks!" I found it interesting that everyone had a hard time identifying the water in the painting, I asked another question, "How would you describe these rocks to someone?" Margaret, who was sitting the front row, answered, "the rocks look like they are growing from the ground..." Other participants began talking in agreement. Margaret paused and said, "It makes me think of my children growing up..." Another woman in the back added, "Reminds me of when I was at school and I came to the sea." After describing the painting together, I guided the conversation to draw on everyone's imagination. |
"If you were standing in this painting, what noises do you think you would hear?" A man on my left yelled, "Large noises!" Another woman answered, "Crashing." Looking at the man on my left I asked, "What about this painting makes you think large noises?" He replied, "Rocks make big noises."
Moving along I asked the group, "Now imagine a strong wind just passed by. What do you imagine the air smells like?" Nancy and Tina whispered to themselves before saying, "Salt!" Another woman added, "Dead fish..." making everyone laugh and wrinkle their noses. Someone in the back answered, "Freshness," while Darlene smiled and said, "I smell happiness."
"Now, looking at this painting and thinking about all things just said," I continued, "How does this painting make you feel?" One of the care givers sighed and replied, "So peaceful. Relaxed." (The same response as Roselle!) "Exhilarating!" exclaimed someone sitting to my right. One of the participants answered, "I feel small," and another said, "It makes me feel incredibly blessed."
After sharing our feelings and reactions to the painting I shared with everyone the painting title, Cathedral. I asked everyone what a Cathedral means to them. "A home," said the lady to my right, "the house of God and worship." Darlene looked at the painting and said, "Big house!" Another person said, "Healing." A care partner and participant replied after talking with themselves, "A place with a dark interior. Maybe a little light creeping in." Her eyes then lit up as she looked at the painting and said, "just like the light in the painting!"
In the studio...
With landscapes on our minds, we went back to the studios to create landscapes of our own. The week before I painted four landscape scenes on large poster board with the help of program assistant, Amelia. On one board we painted a cityscape and forestscape. On the other we painted a seascape and mountainscape. When everyone was settled in the studio I divided the tables into one of the four different painted landscapes. I asked each table to create whatever comes to mind when they think of their landscape and when they're finished, using a glue dot, paste it to the painting of their landscape.
Some people drew fish for the seascape while others painted stoplights and trashcans for the cityscape. Walking over to a man who had already finished pasting his artwork to his landscape he told me, “I can’t wait to share my artwork with my son!” He was working on another landscape painting inspired by what he had just drew.
One woman who I love talking with is Millie. She comes almost every session and has the sweetest smile and although her hearing isn't very good anymore, she always tries her best to understand what's being said around the room. I noticed, however, that her Alzheimer’s has been becoming progressively worse. Over the past couple of months she's been slowly loosing interest in participating in the studio aspect of the program. When I went over to help her she asked me, “Where’s my daughter?” And I answered that maybe she is at home. She asked again and I gave her the same answer. After we talked about her daughter she picked up a marker and began to draw for the first time in months. It seemed that the thought of her family provided her confidence to attempt to accomplish the task in front of her.
Moving around the room I noticed that one man wrote on his painting “Navy” and “my sons”. When I asked he said he wrote what he could not draw. He explained to me that both of his sons are in the navy and drawing a seascape made him think of that. I learned from his care partner that he also was in the navy. For some reason. this project had us all thinking about our families.