Cognitive Activity Design – Painting with all ages and few dollars!

While earning my aging specialist degree, I initially chose to focus on activity directing. My favorite subjects have always been those regarding people and how they operate, so I was enthralled with Dr. Roger Anunsen’s “The Aging Mind” course. You can see the Ted talk here. Roger teaches how synapses connect across the different regions of the brain changes with age in surprising ways. It turns out that creativity increases we age. Research on this idea has yielded us studies of Alzheimer’s patients and painting therapy programs. Part of the course list for Activity Director certification involved crafting Cognitive Activity Designs (CAD) for group classes. I also needed to secure several internship credits for each certificate, in total I interned for three terms for two groups, one of which I crafted many CADs for personally.

My first #internship was with the Geezer Gallery, where I helped prepare supplies for projects and then helped direct an #intergenerational project between retirees and foster kids. The retirees helped the foster kids create a collage board that described their relationships. These retirees are "assigned" to them by the community board, part of their rent is traded for childcare services for the parents of these foster kids. So it was very interesting to help teach them together how to use various art supplies and new processes. Watching them work together was beautiful and it shines through in their work how much of a bond they had formed.

It was a wonderful experience and it just reminded me of how much I love creating things, and teaching people how to create things. I took away from the month long project a renewed creative vigor, and I wanted to share what I had discovered about #aging and #art with my #community.

I am a born artist; I’ve been making stuff for as long as I can remember. Growing up somewhat low on funding, I often resorted to making birthday presents and other gifts for friends. An entire summer was once spent crafting corn husk dolls and all of my friends and family got dioramas complete with a corn husk doll family for every. Single. Holiday. Ah, the 90’s, before smart phones, even before texting for some, like myself. I spent my free time outside, collecting supplies and learning about the plants and animals around me, and thinking of ways to apply my finds to my life.

That resourcefulness serves me well to this day. In preparing for activities for the #Alzheimer’s respite group I’ve been volunteering for, I’ve had to overcome many boundaries to a successful activity. The second internship group was called Change of Pace, and it was a half-day respite program for the local Alzheimer’s population. Initially, my job was to assist the activity director, but I quickly took on more responsibilities and that role and was soon directing the art portion of the program independently, eventually the group independently.

The weekly budget for this group was $10, this was to cover food and any entertainment and art supplies. For me, this meant many trips to the dollar store, and a return to my roots of foraging and gathering supplies. My favorite #CAD for Change of Pace was #acrylic #paint #pouring. Check out the Gallery for some of the masterpieces created at this group. My favorite set of supplies are a combination of 10 different colors in a plastic tub, several fruit cups or other empty #recycled cups, and a pack of 30 foam trays from the dollar store, cut so there were four legs and a rather flat surface for paint to be #poured upon. I discovered that Styrofoam makes a great medium for acrylic paint, and I’ve noted in the gallery what pieces were poured on Styrofoam versus #canvas.

The group already had a large selection of acrylic paint, so after I donated a gallon of Liquitex paint conditioner, with that $1 investment of plates, we were ready to go. This activity is very easy for the older people with dementia, all you have to do is turn a cup upside down or drizzle the paint out onto your canvas. This activity was so fun, we repeated it and perfected it over time and I have many pieces to treasure forever. The smiles of my older friends when they saw the amazing ways the paint mixes together filled my heart and I highly recommend painting as an activity with your older loved ones. I brought my kids to many groups and paint pouring was an activity that we love to do at home as well, it really is fun for all #ages.

For tons of #painting #inspiration, pro tips on pouring, pour recipes and so many hacks I can’t even think of how many, check out my #Pinterest painting board below. I’ve pinned some of our paintings from the gallery as well as pieces that I’ve loved for inspiration, pieces that my kids have pinned with me when we scroll together and tips that I’ve found useful. Keep checking back for more inspo, I’m always painting and always pinning! Take care, from the girl with paint under her nails 😉