No Barriers to Creativity

by Jean Badran

As a child I loved to create decorative objects and artwork. The plans of my imagination, however, usually required more supplies than I had in reality and I often couldn't finish my projects. Instead of simply buying whatever else was needed, my mother would often show me a way to change my idea so that the materials I already had would be sufficient. I learned that barriers could become interesting design challenges. During my recent graduate studies in the field of adult education and gerontology, I have been learning that many of the barriers that appear as we age can hold within them creative challenges and possibilities of hope.

A couple of years ago, while attending a Faith at Work Women's Event, I met Priscilla Dreyman, Executive Director and founder of SPIRAL Arts, an interfaith community-based arts organization in Portland, Maine. God clearly had a hand in this meeting because until then I had been researching the topic of creativity and aging out of strong interest, but had no idea where I would be able to go with it. As it turned out, SPIRAL, Arts had been given a donation to be used specifically for developing elder arts programming in a nursing home. Priscilla offered me an internship opportunity and this past year I have had the honor of working with a wonderful group of elder artists. Together we have discovered new gifts and experienced many moments of joy as we have come to know and learn from each other.

After researching several nursing care facilities, I found one that was interested in collaborating with our program. With the therapeutic recreation director's support, I began developing one-to-one relationships with several of the residents. These formed the foundation of the art studio group, Volunteers, staff and guest artists helped me introduce weekly art-making experiences that included watercolors, collage, clay, fabric-painting and papier mache. Music was also included during several sessions with a Celtic harp practitioner. To design successful projects, I had to consider the unique range of limits that age can present, such as hearing and sight impairments, paralysis from stroke, severe shaking, dementia, and loss of hand strength and dexterity. When I started, I had little idea how I would meet these challenges. Offering a variety of art experiences allowed more opportunities for participation.

Subtle Signs

Keeping my intuition, all of my senses and heart open to whatever happened helped me notice subtle signs of response and chances for learning, both for the participants and myself. For example, in an early session when I asked a resident if she wanted to join us, she nodded just a very weak "yes" but wouldn't speak. I showed her how to use a paintbrush and watercolors with little assurance that it was the right thing for me to do. She began to try on her own, carefully working with beautiful rich opaque colors. Slowly she began to say just a few words. Eventually, she described a dark purple area as being how she felt when she had begun painting. Then pointing to a large bright yellow shape in the corner of the paper, she told me that it represented how she felt now, adding that she felt much better! New at this, I was completely taken aback and pleased by her willingness to let the creative act of painting affect and be affected by her feelings.

I never knew what actions, words, or activities would motivate and inspire the artists. Some tried to represent images, working from a still life or photograph, while others would play with color or explore different shapes and textures. Some used rich saturated color when they painted, while others mixed so much water in as to barely show any color at all. It was not our purpose to analyze their work but to present expressive possibilities with art materials. One tiny talkative woman with dementia wheeled herself in one day to see what we were doing. She appeared curious but was reluctant to try painting. I decided to hold her hand with the brush and together we put some color on the paper. She continued on her own a little, and for several sessions after that, would arrive and act as if she'd never done this with us before. Each time we would show her all over again. Then one day I was told that her roommate of four years had died and that because she seemed depressed, she probably wouldn't want to paint. But later on she quietly appeared, picked up the brush and began painting all on her own, not interacting with anyone else. Periodically I glanced over to see that the entire piece of paper was being covered with the strongest colors and brushstrokes I had ever seen her attempt. She then put the brush down and left the room as quietly as she had appeared.

Expanding Field

Residents were encouraged to make every possible choice about the design of their pieces. In this way, they could both exercise control in decision-making and take pride in the uniqueness of their work. One of the residents has required all of her basic physical needs to be met by a caregiver her entire life. Shortly after the program began, a volunteer brought her in just to watch the others paint. Her speech was very difficult to understand and she had little range of motion in her hands. It had usually been assumed that there was not much she was capable of doing for herself. The volunteer decided to see if she would hold a paintbrush dipped in paint. Then by positioning the drawing board up very close, she waited to see if the resident would try to make a mark. To our surprise, she made many brushstrokes and it sparked the beginning of a new painting career! Her laughter was joyful and infectious. No longer just an observer, she was now actively participating, something rare in her 60 plus years. For the next couple of sessions we experimented with and found different positions and tools to help her become more and more self-sufficient--painting expanded the whole field of her life.

I worked hard to emphasize that in these sessions, there were no "failures"... that all efforts had value. As I learned to appreciate the strengths that a so-called "disability" might bring to the process of art-making, I tried to encourage the residents to do the same. I intervened only if my help was requested, and tried to keep my personal influence to a minimum. One woman had wonderfully creative ideas that were inspired by the world travels of her younger years. She wasn't always able to carry out her ideas as intricately as she would have liked. However, it was always delightful to hear her descriptions about her experiences while trying to help her attain at least some of her creative goals. Her collage work was lovely, as she carefully planned the colors, textures and images. It was impossible to tell from the finished pieces that she was working with only one hand. Another resident always reminded me that a stroke had taken away his ability as a former jeweler and wood-worker. Although rarely happy with the abstract result of his efforts, due to the difficulty he had controlling the tools, his courage to keep trying was a constant inspiration to me.

Lifelong Growth

My late 40s brought a deeper search for God's calling in my life and I felt led to return to school to study gerontology. There I re-discovered my love of the arts so important to my youth, and was intrigued by the door the arts opened into my work with elders. I have come to believe that our spiritual lives, as well as our imaginations, have the capacity to grow in extraordinary depth as we age and even because of our age -- this at a time when we might be tempted to just see the challenges of age as barriers. In a culture that often doesn't value elders, I find much hope in this perspective, both for myself as I age and in the work I do with others. The program I have written about was not a large one, but the experience for me has been a profound reminder that the greatest Creator of all continues to move within us even in our last stages of life.

Jean Badran received her masters degree from the University of Southern Maine this past Spring, and continues to work for SPIRAL Arts. She lives in Hollis, Maine with her husband, long-time Faith at Work member, Don Smith, and can be reached by email. SPIRAL Arts was featured in the Spring, 1999 issue of F@W magazine and its website.