October 26, 2010

By: Nancy K. from San Diego, CA
Comments: 27

Posted By: Nancy Katz
On: 12/28/2006 9:45:54 PM

Many times since SDI I have thought of the speaker from Stanford talking about empathy and the nurses restructuring the hospital- patient care relationship. These 3 incidents related to that in a way and have bought up other issues in my mind. 1.I have a show of my painting now in Binghamton at the Perry Gallery. A friend of mine has a 12 year old autistic son named Sam. Sam is not verbal but was very taken with the postcard of my painting announcing the show. He carried it around for days and kept it under his bed. His parents have seen the show, bought a painting and I hope will come back with Sam. 2.Wednesday we were invited to the home of the Lindsays, a couple near by, he Professor emeritus of art history at Binghamton University, she a pianist. I had wonderful talk with Ken, who at 87 has so much to share from his work with Kandinskys widow to friendship with G. Grosz. He was one of the Monument Men who saved and recovered art works after WWII. There was an article in the NY Times last week about them and a documentary film on the subject will be released in Jan.- The Rape of Europa. I told him about my show and gave him a postcard. the painting is of a landscape. He spent a while looking and sort of traveling through the picture with his fingers. The looking was very tactile. He was moving through that landscape. 3. Today a visited a friend Bernard who is 85 in the hospital. He is recovering from surgery. His wife is an artist and they did come to see the show . He asked how the show was going and said he had the postcard at home and kept it where he could see it all the time. I said, oh, I have a card in my bag. I handed it to him and he, like Ken was looking with his hands. The painting evoked a number of stories. In his younger life he had written and published farm magazines, travelling through several counties in upstate NY. He said, this was my life, as he wandered through the picture. Stories followed. When I was home this evening I was thinking first of Bernard in the hospital room that was pretty bare and non personalized. There was a large white board where the nurse had written the patient name, nurses name and any special important issues or concerns. It was a good step in making connections to make the patient feel connected but it was really ugly and cold. That made me think of why you could have art or objects for patients to hold, to touch. A small TV could never have the immediacy of a real object. Probably there are art therapists that do some of this work. I am going to bring Bernard some more postcards and put up some quick sketches his grandchildren had done for him describing their trip to NYC. Sorry this was so long- but there seemed to be a connection between touching art, memory and possibly a road to recovery.

Posted By: Donna Lewis
On: 1/1/2007 1:46:27 PM

Congratulations on having an art show, selling pictures and making some connections between art= people=memories=recovery. Your stories are inspiring and remind me of speaking with you this summer. We'd love to see your art work also. Regards and Happy New Year.

Posted By: Louis Mazza
On: 3/25/2007 3:39:02 PM

How could a hospital room (or a room in the home for those who are ill or recovering) be designed to promote health? This would have connections to color, light, scent, art. Just saw on CBS Sunday Morning the phenomenon of the book "The Secret" (which has sold like 10 trillion copies) which is about, in part, thoughts being THINGS. I'm not really one for metaphysics, but I do believe in the power of an environment on well-being. It could be an interesting project/study that could focus on a community rehab center, hospital, elder care facility... etc. Let's do it Aruna! (...we work at the same school.)

Posted By: Barbara Nikoomanesh
On: 3/27/2007 11:37:54 AM

Louis, I'll be interested to see what you and Aruna come up with. How exciting. I would also love to give this problem to the students, to see what ideas they have. We have such preconceived ideas about what we know of health care facilities, but the younger generation should hold very different ideas, considering the changes that have been made before their lifetime.

Posted By: Nancy Katz
On: 3/28/2007 4:46:39 PM

Louis and Aruna, I have a friend whose 7 year old son was sick a few years ago with leukemia. He had a bone marrow transplant from his twin brother and is doing very well. SHe started a group called- A Room to Heal- where a group of people design and construct- execute- paint- do whatever- a room for a person who is sick. they have done a few rooms, mainly for children, but not exclusively. I thought it would be great to get involved with a group of students because it would be not just working in the theoretical but in the real- doing something that could be felt and experienced and appreciated by the receiver. I know they are in the process of getting a website up and running. If you are interested in speaking with her let me know.

Posted By: Donna Sharpe
On: 4/1/2007 7:46:02 PM

Nancy, What a wonderful set of experiences you had to bring validation of the pailliative potential of art. A photographer in my town agrees completely - he's marketing his scenic photographs printed on large fabrics to hospitals around the world for use as curtains!

Posted By: Monique Fineman
On: 4/4/2007 12:01:44 PM

I enjoyed reading you posts and thought of a friend who runs a alzheimer's facility. I was thinking about how all these different types of images could help those in his home. I loved the idea of the curtains. I am going to pass this along to him. I like the thought of having a constant sunny image to keep thoughts positive!

Posted By: Donna Sharpe
On: 4/4/2007 11:39:55 PM

Monique - the website for the curtains is https://www.sereneview.com/. I finally saw some in person during a recent visit to the local ER and they really are pretty cool.

Posted By: Barbara Nikoomanesh
On: 4/9/2007 4:05:29 PM

Our students are involved in a community service project each year, called the Memory Room Mural project. It is sponsored by the local chapter of the Alzheimer’s association. Our students come up with a design based on the life of the patient whose wall we are painting. It is intended to evoke a happy memory from their life. We just painted a mural this weekend in "Annabelle’s" room. It is very rewarding for all of us involved, and it lets the students have a glimpse in to the life of an Alzheimer's patient. If I figure out a way to post an image, I will do that.

Posted By: Nancy Katz
On: 4/10/2007 9:07:15 AM

Barbara, what a great project the Memory Room sounds like. This was what was happening in some ways when my 85 year old friend( not an Alzheimer patient) looked at my painting that was like a catalyst for memories and stories. Did the students talk with the Annabelle's family members? Would love to hear more about your work.

Posted By: Barbara Nikoomanesh
On: 4/10/2007 9:42:44 AM

The Alzheimer’s association representative spoke ahead of time with Annabelle's family and with her, to try and figure out about her background and what was important to her, in her life. The information was given to the students, who then designed a mural, incorporating those aspects of life they were told Annabelle enjoyed. The students did get to interact with her while they were painting, since she did watch them do the mural. Annabelle expressed that her 20th birthday was her favorite memory, since she felt she could conquer the world. She also expressed that she missed the farm she grew up on, and that she liked flowers. This is the 5th year we have done a memory room mural, and each was very different.

Posted By: sudha singh
On: 6/13/2007 11:08:15 PM

I have read all these great ideas and cannot help but share that prior to my injury one of the projects I had plannned on was taking the learners to the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia , and an Old People Home in our community and do a survey of what the needs were that needed to be addressed. The plan did not fall through because i of my absence, but I do want to implement it this coming school year. These conversationa have supplied a wealth of ideas and I relish each reading.

Posted By: John Galt
On: 6/20/2007 3:03:40 PM

Once you start focusing on design you start seeing it, or lack of it, everywhere. This application of design to the patient room made me wonder who makes the decision for how it is designed? It seems like some things are designed by default. What I mean, is that they are designed in the way things have always been done. Or, in the case of hospitals, they are probably designed with the efficiency of the hospital in mind. Rooms are probably designed to be easy to clean, easy to manouver machines into, etc. There is probably an economy of scale at work here too. It is cheeper to buy one color of paint, rather than painting each room a different color (for example), to say nothing of murals. Also, if everything is bland and the same, there is probably less complaining by patients. So, perhaps the design principles are at work here, there are just different goals behind the design (perhaps made by hospital administrators) than goals that would be desirable or benefit the patient most.

Posted By: Catherine Perry
On: 6/21/2007 10:44:03 AM

Could someone tell me the author of "The Secret"? I looked it up on the NYPL site but there's about 10 books with that title... Last spring I took a course with the New York City Writing Project, and we were asked to bring in evidence of the different functions of writing (if that makes sense). Someone brought in an article about how medical professionals are now treating hospital patients in method called "Narrative Medicine"; wherein they encourage the patients to write, illustrate, or otherwise creatively communicate not only the story of their lives, but thier illness as well. It's almost as if the illness is its own memoir. The research done on this modality has yielded results that wouldn't be too surprising to us: the recovery time for the patients using Narrative Medicine was radically shorter, and the level of recovery was higher. Creativity can save lives, as we all knew, but there's hope for us all when the medical profession finally catches up with us!

Posted By: maxine feldman cohen
On: 7/9/2007 4:59:50 PM

Catherine, by now you must know that the "The Secret" is also a movie! Sorry, my friend has my copy, but you will find info about the film easily.

Posted By: maxine feldman cohen
On: 7/9/2007 5:03:57 PM

Barbara, The Memory Room Mural Project sounds so wonderful. I would love to know more about it. I have done collage type murals with children that were sent to hospitals in Israel. Although I work with young children, I would love to pass the info about this program on to my highschool art teachers.

Posted By: Barbara Nikoomanesh
On: 7/10/2007 10:23:28 AM

Maxine, As soon as I can update our Environmental Design program website, I will post some of the images of the Memory Room project. I will post when I update. The local chapter of the Alzheimer's Association is whom we do this through. I would contact your local chapter of the Alzheimer's Association, to find out if this is a national or local Kansas City program. They chose the recipient of the mural, by talking to care facilities, and finding out who would benefit the most from a mural in their room. Once they have determined the recipient, they interview any family members or long time friends, to find out the patient’s past history and interests. (The patient's usually can not give much input because of their condition) The hope is to spark some sort of good memory or peaceful feeling for the recipient. The students are then given the information on the patient, and they begin the design process. I have all students involved create their own drawing, incorporating the ideas the Alzheimer’s Association gives them. As a class we discuss the finished drawings, usually compiling ideas from different drawings. We use an overhead projector to transfer the image on the wall. The Alzheimer’s association supplies the paint and brushes. The interaction the students have with the patient’s and staff have been extremely rewarding.

Posted By: mel ruth
On: 4/30/2008 2:42:55 PM

One resource is the inventors programs, the Lemelson -MIT program. They really reach out to inventors. htier website is www.inventeams.org. You can't go wrong with this organization. they are helpful, informative and interdisciplinary.