Rushing Forward While Sitting Still

My paperwork has spread to the dining room table (actually in the living room). I have been rushing forward mentally, researching art and the elderly. I believe art can be beneficial without being therapy. Apparently this is a radical New Idea. Not much is out there. Gene Cohen, so recently gone, was a "pioneer." TimeSlips uses stories. MoMA does Alzheimer's outreach. But there should be so much more.

So I'm reading about teaching art to children: they are also beginners. But adults have years of experience even if they're not artists (as one of of my students frequently protests). Plus my students may or may not be mentally intact, and their bodies may or may not cooperate. Experience, vision, hearing, mobility, understanding, I must take these all in stride, in 60 minutes, while teaching art.

What to do? Take a course in teaching? Volunteer with Hearthstone? Or maybe put aside the books and take a painting class, find out (again) what it's like to be the beginner.

*Breathe* Pay the bills. Run the errands. Make dinner. Flip goes another day.

Here's a shot from a quiet moment in our house. Nina The Tramp comes inside now its so cold, but you can tell from those eyes that you better watch what you say.