Archive for year: 2014

Barb Warfel takes in the lush landscape that Maxine is painting before offering a suggestion.

Barbara Passeri-Warfel demonstrates shading techniques for a Homeland resident painting a California landscape.

“OK, Max, let’s get a little bit of light blue on top of that,” she says. “Let’s get a smaller brush because those are small areas, just to get it a little bit lighter.”

Warfel is leading her students at Homeland Center’s twice-monthly art classes. Sitting in Homeland’s cheery Ted Lick Room, residents first learn the basics of drawing and then graduate to painting. Eventually, they have a portfolio of still lifes and scenes in pencil and tempura paint.

The classes are just one way that Homeland residents express themselves and broaden their horizons through art. Homeland’s Florida Room is a gallery for rotating exhibits by guest artists arranged by the Art Association of Harrisburg, providing such high-quality works as watercolors, landscapes, portraits and nature scenes for residents to enjoy. A “paint and sip” activity allows residents to get in on the nationwide craze of painting while enjoying a favorite beverage.

Warfel is an experienced teacher who has worked with older individuals for 15 years. Her students start by drawing lines, then crossing them on the page until shapes emerge. In one early lesson, they draw three pears in pencil to learn the intricacies of shading from light to dark. In another, they experiment with the interplay of colors by coloring butterflies in their own imaginative combinations and designs.

A Homeland resident picked a scene of flowers and birds to paint, saying she liked the vibrant shades of red in the picture.

Painting gives residents “a whole new perspective on seeing,” Warfel says.

“They’re seeing differently because they’ve learned to see beyond ‘that’s a chair,’ ” she explains. “They’ll see past that. They’ll see variations in color. They’ll see how the light and the shadows change things.’’

Art is also “good mental exercise,” Warfel says. “They’re making choices and making decisions. It gets them concentrating and focused.”

On a day when sunlight streams in through the Lick Room windows, two of Warfel’s students recalled that they had done little painting before starting classes with Warfel five years ago. Warfel shows a painting by Betty of peeled oranges, and you can almost smell the citrus. The shades of orange are dynamic. The peels have texture.

Betty jokes that, “If you stand back far away, it looks good.” But she adds that some people don’t pursue art because they think they have to be good at it the first time they put brush to paper.

“Everybody else said they couldn’t do it,” Betty says. “We couldn’t do it, either. You can learn something at any age.”

Facing Betty from the other side of the table, Maxine says that she used to “paint things at home,” such as kitchen glassware. What does she like about painting?

“It keeps me out of trouble,” she jokes.

Homeland art students learn to work in different media. Each compiles a portfolio of work that decorates their rooms or are given as gifts appreciated by family and friends.

After Warfel explains how to create depth by using three shades of each color, Maxine says that she “started out drawing and ended up painting.”

Betty compliments Warfel’s methodical approach. “She starts from the very beginning, because she is a teacher,” Betty says.

The students enjoy giving their works to friends, family and Homeland staff. Betty’s daughter finds matted frames at yard sales and replaces the pictures with her mother’s works. One of Betty’s lovely paintings, framed by her daughter, is a copy of a simple but powerful Van Gogh still life of a forsythia branch in a glass of water.

Betty views her works – all rich with precision and depth – with self-effacing humor. She likes the red flowers she’s painting on this day because “you can make a lot of mistakes, and then when it dries, it looks pretty good.”

Warfel assures Betty that her work is lovely. She tries to maintain a lighthearted tone, and her artists respond.

“This is very carefree, and no-stress,” Warfel says. “I want to make it fun.”

Melanie Isaac is handing out musical instruments, of a sort – hand chimes, turkey calls, paper towel rolls wrapped in fuchsia and green duct tape.

Every week music therapist Melanie Isaac helps residents reconnect with the songs they love.

Preparing to sing “Jimmy Crack Corn,” she faces the eight Homeland Center residents who are gathered in a semi-circle and pulls out a plastic ear of corn made for shaking and strumming.

“Want to give it a try, Genie?” she asks one.

“Sure,” answers Eugenie. “You know me!”

It’s music therapy day, one of the weekly sessions that help residents with Alzheimer’s and dementia reconnect with the music they love. The residents come from Homeland’s skilled care unit as well as its specialized Ellenberger Unit, devoted to top-quality care for those with advanced memory impairment.

In the cheery dining room, Isaac, a music therapist with WB Music Therapy, strums her guitar or plays the keyboard. Residents play rhythm on the homemade and hand-held instruments that Isaac provides.

Music is “something they don’t lose,” says Isaac.

“You’ll see people who can’t talk to you anymore. They can’t answer your questions, but they can still sing lines and lines of old hymns,” she says. “It just doesn’t go away. I try to tap into that and bring up memories associated with music and family.’

Each session is devoted to a theme, with songs pulled from the residents’ experiences, such as holiday songs or folk songs that relate to the season. Isaac mixes some brain teasers into the session, leading residents in a game of “Name That Tune” or playing part of a song for them to finish.

On this day featuring folk songs and the tunes of Stephen Foster, she shares the surprising fact that the 19^th-century songwriter famous for his odes to the South came from Pittsburgh.

Strumming the opening to a familiar tune, Isaac sings, “She’ll be coming ’round. …” She halts and gestures to her audience.

“The mountain,” say sing.

A strong body of research shows that music can be an inlet for communication and interaction among people with Alzheimer’s and dementia, Isaac says.

“It helps keep their cognition sharp, and they can interact with each other in a meaningful way that’s enjoyable,” she says. “Music hangs on until the end. It’s a way that families and other people can interact with their loved ones after it’s hard to interact in other ways.”

At this session, a resident named Charlie is silent when he comes in but enthusiastically taps the hand-held chime that Isaac has given him during rounds of “Swanee River” and “Polly Wolly Doodle.” Even when his head starts to droop as the session continues, he perks up for the concluding song, a rousing rendition of “This Land is Your Land.” When Isaac tells him his work was beautiful, Charlie speaks up.

“I didn’t know what I played,” he admits. Clearly, though, he was enjoying himself.

Isaac asks the residents if any of them have made music with pots and pans. Ruby, who has been singing along with the familiar tunes, says that she has.

“My brothers and father used to play instruments,” she says.

Isaac works hard to engage the residents, and in a report to Homeland she assesses their involvement, measured by a smile or a willingness to take an instrument.

Throughout Isaac’s rendition of “Jimmy Crack Corn,” Eugenie had been brushing her plastic ear of corn with a stick in time with the music. As the song ended, she gave a closing flourish.

“That was great!” says Isaac. “You know what you’re doing with an ear of corn!”

Eugenie says she enjoys the weekly sessions. Her review of the day’s performance?

“It’s good in the ears,” she says.

Donations in support of our music therapy program are always welcomed and appreciated.  You may pay by check and write “music therapy” in the memo or you can pay online securely here and use the drop down menu to designate it to music therapy.