The Age of Creation

Researchers and caretakers are finding that creative expression helps the elderly age healthfully. And for those with cognitive decline, splashing color over a blank canvas can unlock memories that seemed forever lost to dementia's darkness.

Poet William Carlos Williams spent most of his life as a pediatrician as well as a bard. But a stroke in his 60s left him unable to doctor children. Depressed after losing his medical career, Williams took years to regain his literary voice. Winning his first Pulitzer Prize for his last collection of works at the age of 79, he appears to have discovered what many seniors find as they reach maturity and begin to explore new forms of expression: an "old age which adds as it takes away," as Williams wrote in The Catholic Bells.

Freedom from work constraints in latter years gives older people the chance to explore their creative sides. And artistic endeavors are a good idea, according to recent studies: Engaging in art, music, and poetry can protect seniors from declining health. And even elderly folks who suffer age-related disorders can benefit: People with language and memory deficits can connect with their caretakers and the outside world by picking up a paintbrush.

Gerontologist Gene Cohen of George Washington University in Washington, D.C., quotes Williams when pointing out the connection between creativity and aging, a link he formally started to explore in 1980, after he went to an exposition that spanned 50 years of folk art. Most of the exhibitors were over the age of 65, and many had reached their artistic peaks after their 80th birthday. To explore further whether creative activities influenced senior health and happiness, he designed a series of community-based art programs that brought professional musicians and artists to work with people 65 to 100 years old. Results to be published in upcoming months show that the 150 seniors who undertook artistic endeavors were less depressed and less lonely than 150 locals who did not participate. What's more, the elder artists fell less often, visited their doctors fewer times, and downed fewer medications than their uninvolved counterparts.

These art programs motivate seniors more than other activities they take up, says Cohen. "Look at the best exercises--the treadmill, jogging--they're boring," he says. But when sculpting clay or scripting poetry, individuals experience "a palpable sense of mastery and group support. Week after week after week, it's like a booster shot."

Encouraging self-expression injects vitality into seniors' lives and can also help revive their memories--particularly for individuals with Alzheimer's disease (AD). People with this debilitating disorder can have a hard time expressing themselves verbally. Now a program called Memories in the Making uses painting as a way for patients with AD to communicate memories to their families and caregivers. "A patient might paint a farmhouse that he lived in as a child," portraying a scene from the past that now rests at the forefront of his mind, says Joanne Fisher, event coordinator for the Memories program at the Alzheimer's Association's Colorado chapter. Laying these images on the canvas offers patients comfort--and their families hope. One man, who had trouble recognizing his wife, liked to paint the colorful tropical fish he collected in the early days of his marriage. His wife told Fisher, "If he remembers the fish, he might remember me."

Epidemiologist John McKinlay of the New England Research Institute in Watertown, Massachusetts, says that more studies like Cohen's are needed to determine whether art programs, such as Memories in the Making, slow down the cognitive and physical decline that accompany aging. If so, then these artistic therapies could be included in the arsenal that Medicare pays for, he suggests. But for now, many programs like Memories in the Making support themselves by auctioning off their patients' best paintings, which also nurtures pride for the AD artists and their families.

And the relation between artistry and aging goes both ways. Not only can creative pursuits bolster ailing seniors, but for certain patients, cognitive decline can liberate artistic expression. Neurologist Bruce Miller of the University of California, San Francisco, studies people with a rare type of dementia that cripples the brain's language centers. "This degeneration is associated with a jump in visual creativity," he says. Some individuals with this disorder begin to invent, paint and create things "totally out of the blue." This striking, yet gradual, change occurs in some people with so-called frontotemporal dementia. Although they can't recall the word "boat" when shown a picture of one, they can paint a schooner skimming on a foamy sea. As the dementia worsens, their creative streak grows more impressive. "I've come across some of the most exciting artists I've seen" while working with these patients, Miller says. And their accomplishments have shown him that aging "is not a monolithic picture of decline."

Age-related changes can, however, affect the way people express themselves. Neuroscientist Dahlia Zaidel of the University of California, Los Angeles, says that aging eyes change the colors that artists use and alter their styles. Over time, the fluid in the center of the eye yellows slightly and the lens thickens. These shifts prevent shorter wavelengths of light from getting through, causing older artists to rely on fewer blues. After he turned 60, Renoir's paintings featured more reds and browns than did his early masterpieces.

Cataracts and failing eyesight also influence an artist's work. "All impressionists suffered from poor vision," says Zaidel. Claude Monet, painter of the famous water lilies, suffered from cataracts in an age before treatment was widely available, and his art got progressively fuzzier. He painted reflections of trees in ponds with less precision as time wore on, for instance. Canvases painted by the American Southwest artist Georgia O'Keefe presented larger, blurrier images as she reached her late 70s and suffered macular degeneration, an eye problem common in the elderly. Eventually, she couldn't see well enough to paint and "resorted to pottery," says Zaidel.

Older people enjoying art are also affected by these visual changes, which should be considered when choosing art to decorate places where seniors live or socialize, says Zaidel. Such pictures shouldn't be full of tiny details, for example, and should include more reds than purples.

Whether individuals are adjusting their lifelong vocation to the challenges of maturity or painting their histories in watercolor, figuring art into old age appears to have more than a merely aesthetic purpose. To take advantage of their golden age of creativity, perhaps seniors should replace their canes with pencils, brushes, and palettes.

Mary Beckman writes from southeast Idaho and thinks her portraits can only improve with her declining sight.

Correction:

The first paragraph of this article erroneously stated that William Carlos Williams did not begin writing poetry until his 60s. The paragraph has been rewritten. The original first paragraph is:

Poet William Carlos Williams spent most of his life as a pediatrician. But a stroke in his 60s left him unable to doctor children. So he began to write verse. While weighing the loss of a medical career and the gain of a new literary vocation, he discovered what many seniors find as they reach maturity and begin to explore new forms of expression: An "old age which adds as it takes away," as Williams wrote in The Catholic Bells.

In the 8th paragraph we stated incorrectly that the changes to the aging eye prevent longer wavelengths from getting through. The sentence should read "shorter wavelengths." We have made the correction.