Therapist Note


My work is my life, disease and experience. I am trying to communicate emotion, experience and passion on a level beyond language and time. I consider any of my pieces which create a reaction, a communication, be it positive or negative, to be a success. My artwork is part of a meaningful healing process with the use of art media. The art media can elicit varied and sometimes surprising responses to even myself, because different art materials have their own psychological effects. This occurrence can be evidenced through my art exhibitions. However, my patients, seniors with Parkinson’s Disease & Dementia, have in the past and will likely continue to be afraid of using art materials and doing art work. Most people react by saying: “I am not an artist.” Then, who is an artist? I want to encourage patients to be artists within the paradigms of “art as therapy” and “art in therapy”. My work advocates the concept of sublimation as a therapeutic intervention. Similar to the literary term of catharsis – sublimation, as the second goal of my work, will involve purifying and simplifying of emotions by bringing them to the consciousness of the patient. In the least, I want to prove that art is effective, and in the example of Parkinson’s, Dementia and Alzheimer’s disease ailments, that patients could celebrate their lives beyond the disease.