Sites of Interest

http://www.dementiapositive.co.uk/stuff-online.html

http://pinterest.com/michele_vincent/aging-issues/

9 Jul Dr. Brian Goldman ‏@NightShiftMD Arts-based education program for people with dementia | Alzheimer's Disease International: http://www.alz.co.uk/icaniwill/library/arts-based-education-program-for-people-with-dementia#.T_tHCx2e_3s.twitter Great idea. More Please!

Arts-based education for people with Alzheimer's

Visit Alzheimer's Disease International to view my recently published article about aspects of my work with elder people who have Alzheimer's.

This website is a wonderful and rich educational resource!


http://www.alz.co.uk/icaniwill/library/arts-based-education-program-for-people-with-dementia

Layering, Colour Relationships and Form

On Reciprocity: teaching and learning with people who have Alzheimer's

Lowell, 2010

The recognition of places within the self that are shaped by silence is a profound and compelling awakening because silence longs to be heard. The thought that such a human experience is universal brings to mind a cacophony of other silences emerging out of some form of oppression – whether political, emotional or physical. My own islands of silence, which I am becoming more familiar with, impose a tangible sense of isolation and discomfort. Thus, I am compelled to bring expression to the silence through my teaching, creative work and research, and to connect with others who struggle in a similar way. It was this awareness that guided me toward the silence that affects people with Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia.


To read more, view my thesis at the following site.

https://tspace.library.utoronto.ca/handle/1807/30085

Arts Mandala is a blog that enables me to bring together different aspects of my personal and professional work. Whether related to arts-in-health programs for children and the elderly, or my on-going academic and creative work, each artwork strives to express ideas and feelings that are not so easily articulated through words. In this way communication has become a central theme of my work - and thus connected to communication disorders and the experience of loss of words.

The Red Door, Kathleen Downie, 2005

This painting evokes the sense of imagined spaces, perhaps those of childhood longing. Much like the Haar, its formal structure plays with rectangular shapes that may appear to move and shift across the picture plane, revealing what might otherwise remain unseen.

The Haar, Kathleen Downie, 2008

The Haar is a thick fog typical to Scotland that quickly engulfs the coastline, and may as rapidly receed. Like all deep and penetrating mists, the haar has a mysterious and spiritual quality.