Understanding
Directed Painting
Most people find it hard to believe that the paintings they see on this website are actually the work of Alzheimer's patients and autistic children. Once they see the process, however, they begin to understand how directed painting works. The perfect example is a putting on a play.
The Play's the Thing
To stage a play, you must have a script, a director, a theatre, some actors and an audience. If you take away any part, it becomes something quite different. Without a script or director, it's improv. Without an audience, it's a rehearsal.
"Come on... did she REALLY paint that?"
The Role of the Actor (The Client)
Each part is integral, but the success or failure of a play all hinges on the actors. You can have a wonderful, witty script, excellent director, a lovely stage and an eager audience, but if the actor gives a poor or indifferent performance, the whole thing goes down the tubes.
Each step of the MnemeTherapy process is integral to the success of the session, but it's the client , playing the role of the "actor" who drives the performance. The first thing we need is their cooperation. Willingness to participate is our only criteria. Without that, nothing can happen.
The Director (The MnemeTherapist or MT)
As the Director, the MT must become the master of time and illusion, quickly drawing the client's attention and keeping it. The Director's job is to move the actor smoothly and seamlessly through each "scene".
The director coaches from the "house" (stage slang for the seats), giving instruction, demonstrating a stroke or movement, shaping the painting by providing expertise in color and composition, just a a director molds the play with his or her own insight and an experienced eye. It's not our job to get up on the stage and take over the actor's role.
The Script (the process of MnemeTherapy)
MnemeTherapy is a multi-modality process. That means we use not just art, but singing, movement, patterning, painting, sustained attentive focus, story-telling and praise to achieve our goals.
It's the act of painting, not the painting itself that does the work of reorienting the brain through multiple means of communication.
The paintings are instructional, not expressive. Our goal is not to uncover emotions, interpret the art or help our client get in touch with hidden feelings. That's the job of a trained Art Therapist.
Our process is about creating sustained attentive focus (SAF) to initiate neuroplasticity, or the ability of the brain to change. Although our main goal is to provide a satisfying experience for our clients, many documented dramatic improvements have taken place and both clients and caregivers benefit from the experience.
Even though each painting is done with the same steps, the work is creative and full of wonder, as the artist enjoys the experience of painting without the fear of outcome. It's a pure form of art, full of discovery and freedom. And, as you can see (below) each painting as unique as the person who painted it.
What is Neuroplasticity?
In a recent issue of Scientific American, Michael M. Merzenich noted, "The brain was constructed to change." This challenge to the conventional worldview that the mature adult brain is stable and unchanging, the only exception being the death of brain cells has profound implications.
As Gage stated, "Researchers first demonstrated that the central nervous systems of mammals contain some innate regenerative properties in the 1960s and 1970s, when several groups showed that axons, or main branches, of neurons in the adult brain and spinal cord can regrow to some extent after injury."
The ability of the brain to change both anatomically and functionally is known as neuroplasticity.
In The Mind and the Brain, neuropsychiatrist Dr. Jeffrey Schwartz and science writer Sharon Begley assert that the human brain throughout the lifespan has dynamic properties of neuroplasticity: that is, the ability of neurons to form new brain connections, stimulate new pathways through the cortex, assume new roles and functions (e.g. rewire brain circuitry).
Thanks to new neuroimaging techniques, regarded “as important for neuroscience as telescopes were for astronomy”, neuroscientists and cognitive psychologists have been finding that the brain has a number of "core capacities" and "mental muscles" that can be exercised through novelty, variety and practice, and that exercising our brain can influence the generation of new neurons and their connections. Brain exercise is being recognized, therefore, as a critical pillar of brain health, together with nutrition, physical exercise and stress management.
Previous beliefs about our brain and how it works have been proven false. Some beliefs that have been debunked include claims that adult brains can not create new neurons (shown to be false by Berkeley scientists Marian Diamond and Mark Rosenzweig, and Salk Institute’s Fred Gage), notions that working memory has a maximum limit of 6 or 7 items (debunked by Karolinska Institute’s Torkel Klingberg), and assumptions that the brain’s basic processes can not be reorganized by repeated practice (UCSF’s Drs. Paula Tallal and Michael Merzenich). The "mental muscles" we can train include attention, stress and emotional management, memory, visual/ spatial, auditory processes and language, motor coordination and executive functions like planning and problem-solving.
An example of "expressive art" by an Alzheimer's patient
We follow a strict criteria about intervention.. We can correct a run, straighten a vase, add a shine or shadow, establish a "guide line" (which is important in instructing the brain about "straight,") and pattern a stroke, but painting on a painting is prohibited. Our job, like any good director, is to insure the actor's success.
Take a bow
Would anyone put on a play that wasn't going to be seen by an audience? The need for recogition and approval is a basic human requirement. It's also strong medicine. By sharing our talents, we insure the success of our client and we are rewarded with the best ending of all, a happy smile.
Riverside Gala, Artist's reception, Piedmont, SC
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Patterning a stroke Directing from the "house"
The many faces of Cara
