Into the Garden

After three classes, and lots of behind-the scenes prep, my Alzheimer's group's summer project is done. 

Final piece

Six weeks ago they painted over 50 butterflies, pre-cut with a Tim Holtz die.

marathon painting session - I still have more!

They glued the butterflies on to blue card stock, then painted the background and the butterflies with acrylics. At home, I built these into a wall piece, connected in back with packing tape, and stripped vertically with yellow to build out the width.

Painted and assembled, ready for collage

The bright lines served to guide today's project: adding leaves and flowers.

I like that the black marker shows on some of the leaves

 I arrived with glue, brushes, pre-cut flowers, fun foam, scissors, markers, stick-on dots. A cornucopia of art supplies. 

this woman stuck all her flowers together

 Seven residents gathered at the table. As the hour progressed, folks sorted themselves into tasks. Some like cutting, others gluing, others preferred to work with the less sticky dots. The very talkative person settled into her chosen project. The quietest person stood beside me and worked on placing leaves.

Notice the lovely circles and crosses in the background

 At the end of the class I held the entire piece up. You could hear the intake of breath. "It's lovely." "Look at all the colors." "Who made that?" "It's profound."

Dots were added to the butterflies and backbround

 I laid the piece back on the table. Aides came over. Everyone stayed to joke and admire.

Circle stickers for flower centers

The curmudgeon of the group looked me in the eye: "You did a great job. Someone should tell you that."

 Leading Alzheimer's classes is like doing improve. Just say yes, and take it to the next level.