Cross Community Sharing

For those who follow me you know I do art club at Springfield Care Home in Garforth. For one hour the dinning room becomes an art studio where residents come and draw, paint, look at art, or just sit with a cuppa and watch others make art. We talk about memories and interests and I come away feeling tired (because it's sometimes hard work) but also energised. You would think drawing a simple line wouldn't be hard, but when you have dementia, it's not straight forward at all. So 'looking' has become something important to this little club.

I wanted to share my exchange with Linda, she is such a happy, positive person who really loves making art but she is aware what she makes is sometimes not quite right. Her passion and interest shines through as she tells me what she likes about what she is looking at, but when in comes to the fine motor movement and cognitive processing or drawing, her confidence wavers. Another lady called Marrion is very articulate in her experience. She explains that, 'I want to do it, but I just can't get my hand to do it - it's in my mind you see'.

Linda understands this too, she has been looking at three landscapes by John Constable for the past three sessions. She describes what she is looking at the best way she can and she really wants to draw it, but she's doubtful and hesitant. I can see it's hard for her. I gave her some tracing paper so she could follow the lines, but even that is confusing too. But this doesn't stop her, she is courageous and she keeps trying, even in this small act that so many take for granted. I recently told a group of primary school children about Linda and they were so interested in her experience. As a community artists, I'm lucky that I can share positive stories about art making, across my community.