In honour of Mother's Day, I will be donating a portion of all my sales in May to the Canadian Cancer Society.
Contact me if you are interested in purchasing some cards.

Anne

My mother has been working on a new watercolour, after several years of not having painted very much at all. I have watched her confidence level come back as she continues to work on this piece.

It's been intriguing how much she is able to paint intuitively, without thinking about what needs to be done. Indeed she does better work when she does not stop to think about or "analyze" the painting. When the intuition takes over, the painting starts to take on a life of its own.

Creative activities are very stimulating for those with a dementia. The act of creating taps into the non-verbal areas of the brain. While memory and language start to disappear with dementias, for some reason creativity seems to stay, allowing emotions and expression to take place in non-verbal ways.  I have observed this in others while they were knitting, playing the piano, creating pictures with buttons, even while colouring. It seems to help with relaxation, and also stimulates memories of past times.

I think my mother and I will need just one more session to finish up this painting, then we can decide what she would like to try next. Working on art has been a great way to spend time together, and time I will cherish for years to come.

Anne

A good friend showed me a book she had bought recently with ideas for making greeting cards. The cards were beautiful - gorgeous papers, lots of colours, embellishments, stamps. My first reaction was that my cards don't look anything like those.

She responded: "No they don't. Yours are Anne cards. They are your style".

What a nice compliment, and in that short exchange, she got rid of that little voice in my head that so many of us hear that brings out a negative side, that maybe our work isn't quite good enough.

How many of us don't think we are creative or have artistic talent. In my case a grade seven teacher criticized my art work, and for years after that I didn't think my art was very good. I certainly wan't about to sell any. It took courses and positive feedback many years later to realize that I do, perhaps, have some creativity or a bit of talent. And I realized too just how much I missed being creative, doing some kind of art, every day.

Everyone is creative in their own way, be it painting, knitting, gardening, cooking, home decorating, scrapbooking, writing or other such pursuits. It's the act of creating that is important, not the end result. If a child wants to colour a cow purple and orange, so be it. Developing imagination is key. Creativity and flexiblity are desireable, lifelong skills.

So thank you Catherine for the lovely compliment. It's very much appreciated, as is the support of my family and my friends as I go along this journey. I hope that I am able to inspire you as much as you inspire me.

Anne