Annotated Results: 2 Visual Arts

Please add comments. Tell us about work we've missed. Add work published after we closed our review.

In your annotated additions please tell what was studied, what benefits were found, what quality of life benefits were found, and how well benefits were sustained.

Thanks. Don

2. Visual Arts

Beaujon-Couch, J. (1997). Behind the veil: mandala drawings by dementia patients. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 14(3),187-193.
The 13 stages of the MARI Card Test (a psychological instrument developed by Joan Kellogg based on Carl Jung’s theories of archetypal imagery) were used to categorize drawings created by PWD. Six stages were drawn most frequently and certain colors were described as indicating thoughts and emotions PWD experience but cannot express verbally due to the disease process. Among 471 mandalas, drawn by 71 PWD, many were found to be similar in design. The authors state, “The MARI card test can…facilitate understanding of each patient’s symbolic expression and provide the art therapist with valuable clinical information” (192).

Chaudhury, H. (2003). Remembering Home through Art. Alzheimer’s Care Quarterly, 4(2), 119-124.
This article explores the use of art to encourage reminiscence of familiar, comforting memories such as home.

Doric-Henrdy, L. (1997). Pottery as Art Therapy with Elderly Nursing Home Residents. Journal of the American Art Therapy Association, 14, 162-171.
This study looked at the utilization of pottery as art therapy with seniors in nursing homes as an important tool for psychotherapists working with PWD.

Espinel, C.H. (1996). de Kooning’s Late Colours and Forms: Dementia, Creativity, and the Healing Power of Art. The Lancet, 347 (9008), 1096-1099.
This article uses the art career of Willem de Kooning, particularly his “recovery” period in which he was quite prolific, to explore art “as an aid for understanding dementia, and art as a discipline for the study of the mind,” (1098). The author raises the question: “how does creativity, a preeminently human function, depend upon and adapt to biological and environmental influences, to age, to disease?”(1098).

Johnson, C.M. & Sullivan-Marx, E.M. (2006). Art Therapy: Using the Creative Process for Healing and Hope Among African American Older Adults. Geriatric Nursing, 27, 5, 309-316.
Two case studies are discussed and examples of artwork provided. The article explores how art making addresses the specific developmental tasks of the elderly in a culturally competent manner (specifically, using storytelling and life review with African-Americans who value such skills). The authors suggest that the field of AT combines the potent resource of art with the creative process to bring healing and hope, thereby helping clients make meaning of their lives. Accordingly, AT offers healing by providing social connection, the experience of control and the opportunity to both express and manage emotions and offers hope by facilitating nonverbal communication and providing opportunity to create meaning through life review (309). Most importantly, the artwork is a visual reminder for participants that they can still accomplish and learn new things despite limited mobility or cognition (312). The authors argue that AT makes it possible for others to see beyond the limitations of PWD to their strengths and beauty (316).

Johnson, C.M.; Lahey, P.; & Shore, A. (1992). An Exploration of Creative Arts therapeutic group work on an Alzheimer’s unit. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 19(4), 269-277.
This article discusses the role of arts activities in groups and includes a description of the authors’ long-term care facility, a summary of AD, exploration of the “loss of self” phenomenon, rationale for including creative arts therapies in special care unit, and a discussion of issues relative to group process and technique with AD patients within a therapy-orientation model.

Kahn-Denis, K. (1997). Art therapy with geriatric dementia clients. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association,14(3), 194-199.
This article explains how the evocative nature of art allows PWD to become expressive and bypass some of their cognitive deficits. The authors argue that art’s versatility supports cognitive status and gives the therapist a flexible method of releasing obscured thinking and feeling processes. They outline the benefits of art therapy as assisting with diagnosis and evaluation of cognitive status, providing a vehicle for nonverbal communication, offering a vehicle for reminiscing, enabling sensory stimulation, and providing a self-reflective activity that has art work itself as the intended end product.

Kamar, O. (1997). Light and Death: art therapy with a patient with Alzheimer’s disease. American Journal of Art Therapy, 35, 120-121.
In this article the therapist worked with a group of between 7-12 participants with AD for 2 years in a day care center for the elderly in Hampstead, North London. The focus is on a case-study of one man who rejected initial attempts at cooperative work but then created remarkable “creatures” similar to those found in prehistoric cave paintings, which his therapist read as metaphors for his anxiety and fears. The authors suggest that art therapy can be used as alternative to verbal communication, self-expression, and an outlet for tension and frustration. They note that the intervention can only momentarily heighten QOL, but is still powerful in allowing for communication and reducing tension, isolation, and frustration.

Killick, J. & Allan, K. (1999b). The arts in dementia care: touching the human spirit. Journal of Dementia Care, 7, 5, 33-37.
This article looks at the use of Montessori-based art therapies in dementia care as a means for “reaching” people with dementia. The visual arts are discussed in terms of its application in “diagnosis and assessment, promoting non-verbal communication, enhancing opportunities for reminiscence, its application to sensory stimulation and enjoyment, and finally in strengthening the individual’s sense of self” (pp 33).

Kinney, J. & Rentz, C. (2005). Observed well-being among individuals with dementia: Memories in the Making, an art program, versus other structured activity. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and other Dementias, 20(4), 220-227.
In this article seven domains of well-being with 12 PWD spanning a diversity atypical in most studies reviewed (5 men, 7 women, with a range of diagnoses, 65-85, 5 African Americans, 7 white persons, an equal number of blue collar and professional persons, with a range of art experience) were observed during traditional adult daycare activities and “Memories in the Making,” an art program that “encourages self-expression through the visual arts” (220). PWD displayed significantly more interest, sustained attention, pleasure, self-esteem, and normalcy (problematically defined) during participation in the program and sustained attention for periods of 30-45 minutes.

Lev-Wiesel, R. & Hirshenzon-Segev, E. (2003). Alzheimer’s disease as reflected in self-figure drawings of diagnosed patients. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 30, 83-89.
This study used self-figure drawings to observe AD in persons with and without Alzheimer’s. The 32 subjects included 4 persons with early, 8 with moderate, and 4 with late-stage AD as well as 16 control subjects. Findings suggest that the greater the severity of cognitive decline, the earlier the artistic developmental stage. That is, they argue that the severity of AD is reflected in artistic developmental stages. Importantly, even those who suffered from severe moderate dementia managed to comply to the request “draw yourself.” Therefore, the use of AT in general and drawing in specific seems to be a useful channel of communication with AD patients, regardless of disease stage (88).

Malley, S.M., Datillo, J. & Gast, D. (2002), Effects of visual arts instruction on the mental health of adults with mental retardation and mental illness. Mental Retardation, 40(4), 278-296.
This article examines the effects of visual arts instruction, namely painting, on the mental health of adults with intellectual disabilities and/or mental illnesses.

Newell-Walker, U. (2002). Getting a picture of the client’s world view: art-making and subjectivity as evidence. Journal of Social Work Practice,16(1), 43-54.
This article outlined an approach for social workers to make sense of nonverbal communications through a project exploring 9 self-selected subjects undergoing midlife and its transitions. It found that art-making that accentuates sensory exploration, curiosity, and experimentation, contributed to a changed relationship with self and the external world. The author states that “when adult clients seem to be very ‘stuck’, life-stage may be a factor and creative work useful. Jung (1933) contended that the onset of the second half of life is often experienced as difficult because the familiar “rules” from earlier adulthood falter, and thoughts of mortality increasingly intrude…creative activity is useful for the development of increased tolerance of uncertainty and chaos…Art making can enable reconnection, and drawings can be a map of the process” (53-4).

Radley, A. & Taylor, D. (2003). Remembering One’s stay in hospital: a study in photography, recovery, and forgetting. health: an interdisciplinary journal for the social study of health, illness, and medicine, 7(2), 129-159.
Using one woman’s lens, the authors describe how photo-based interviews made legible the images of hospital experience and the part these images played in the respondent’s account of her recovery. The study shows how remembering involves an ongoing transfer between different kinds of representation and how photos can serve as “retrospective evidence.” Data is drawn from 9 patients hospitalized at least one week who were asked to photograph up to 12 things they found significant about their stay. One female subject was featured because of the range of photos she took and the richness of her interview demonstrating key issues of recovery and recall, and re-presenting displaced experiences through photos as communicative acts.

Reynolds, F. & Lim, K.H. (2007). Contribution of visual art making to subjective well-being of women living with cancer: a qualitative study. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 34(1), 1-10.
In this study the views about the contribution of art-making to the subjective well-being of 12 women living with cancer were explored, based on the principles of interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA). Psychosocial benefits to well-being listed in response to the challenges posed by illness were: enhancing the present moment, an outward expression of positive life experience, enhanced self worth and identity through opportunities to demonstrate continuity, challenge, and achievement, resistance to a social identity subsumed under the master status symbol of cancer, and for a minority, it enabled symbolic expression of feelings. Researchers did caution the possibility of obtaining “heroic narratives” to enhance self-presentation but strategies were believed to manage illness-related anxieties rather than distort or deny difficult realities.

Seifert L.S. & Baker M.K. (2002). Art and Alzheimer-Type Dementia A Longitudinal Study. Clinical Gerontologist, 26(1/2), 3-15.
Based on the promise of art activities for individuals with probable AD to provide enjoyable, supportive environments for those with mild to moderate dementia, this study examined several tasks over a three-month period tested in a group setting at a long-term care facility. This study included not only those with mild memory difficulties, but also individuals with moderate to severe dementia, something largely missing from the literature. Five individuals without dementia and five individuals with probable AD participated on a regular basis. The most successful art activities utilized stickers. All participants seemed able to acquire basic skills associated with making pictures with stickers. In fact, individuals with probable AD retained the “sticker placing” skill after a three-month retention interval and transferred it to a slightly different task, as well.

Shore, A. (1997). Promoting Wisdom: the role of art therapy in geriatric settings. Art Therapy: Journal of the American Art Therapy Association,14(3), 172-177.
This article looks at the role of storytelling through art in allowing participants to share wisdom, leave a legacy, and find meaning in their lives. The struggle inherent in the creative art process is examined as a means to facilitate developmental struggle, through symbol formation, conflict resolution, using mature defenses (like suppression, sublimation, altruism), culminating in wisdom, even in PWD. The author states, “The failure to struggle with pain can result in a disconnected and dormant state” (172).