Out of Sorts

I was told there had been a lot of room changes on the floor 

this morning so the girls were all a bit "out of sorts." 

Thank goodness I'd planned a very "comforting" project for today.

I'd found an article in an American Artist Magazine featuring 

beautiful colorful landscapes by artist Mary Sipp-Green. 

I color xeroxed small images of her paintings for them to look at, 

then outlined the simple shapes in black marker for them. 

All they had to do was color them in any way they wanted.  

This gal calmed right down and got to work 

 

Same picture, different interpretation

Marie told me she was too tired today and didn't want to paint.
Although, once she got started on this, she couldn't stop.
Notice how careful she was to stay in the lines. 

Millie has a some vision problems but she managed this all by  herself.
I love what she did with the "sun" 

  There are four "A" behaviors that Alzheimer patients exhibit.

Anxiousness. Agitation. Aggression. Apathy.

It was heartwarming to watch how "creating" something

helped them calm down and cope a little better, 

even if just for an hour.

Learning as I Go!

I tried something completely different today and learned a lot of "don'ts"! Up to this point, I've only had them paint with watercolors on paper, while "copying"an image from a postcard. (Landscapes, still lives, trees) Today, I gave them each a 6 x 9 piece of white bristol board, various colored construction paper, and glue sticks. The idea was to have them the tear the paper into odd shapes, then glue them on the paper in a pattern or picture to express the idea of spring. It didn't turn out as planned.  

Without a reference to kick them off, they were stymied as to where to start. 

And, the concept of putting odd shapes together to "say" something 

is way too abstract for them 

There was a lot of:

"If my kids saw this, they'd think there was something wrong with me!"

"Why aren't we painting?"

"Now What Do I Do?" 

"Please put this in the trash"

This eager and happy patient, did this all by herself. 

This is what I had hoped would happen!  

I should have given them pictures of gardens! 

This woman hated the "tearing" so much she asked for scissors 

and then came up with this. 

Then she loved it.

Don, who is not a resident there, came in with his wife to sit with her. 

He held her hand and talked to her the whole time 

She was happy to just sit there and watch.  

He made this for her then wrote, 

 "For Ro" above his name. 

LESSONS LEARNED:

Stay with familiar materials.

Give them an idea or an image for direction. 

Stay with concrete identifiable subject matter. 

Don't give them too many options.

Glue sticks are not a good idea 

Also; I'm afraid some of them thought this was a project 

more suited for children and that may have offended them. 

I didn't think of that.  

Thank you to ALL the helpers and volunteers today! 

I needed you!