The Miracle of Creativity in the Woman Artist

Women artists gifted with the tool of creativityQueen, was diagnosed with leukemia in 1986. Her
frequently have extended lives, remain in good healthcareer took a drastic turn downward and was literally
to the end, and experience a blessed sense of"put on hold" when she was diagnosed with the
fulfillment. There is nothing like being a creative artistillness. She was given the prognosis of death within 6
to enable us to experience life's blessings all of ourto 8 years, but three years later in 1989 she was
days. Expressing creativity is the closest humanitytold that her death was imminent without
can come to the Fountain of Youth.intervention. She underwent an experimental bone
The great Georgia O'Keeffe was born on Novembermarrow transplant in 1990 at H. Lee Moffitt Cancer
15, 1887, and has been a major figure in American artCenter in Tampa, FL. and was the only patient out of
since the 1920s. She worked successfully and30 others in the study to survive. She remains
prolifically for over 50 years, but by the early 1970s,Moffitt's longest surviving transplant patient.
her eyesight was eroded by macular degeneration.Recovered and cancer-free, she has resurrected her
Nevertheless, she did not abandon art, but turnedcareer and released a new CD, "ONE WOMAN'S
instead to working with clay and to writing herLIFE." Why was Linda the only patient to survive the
autobiography, as well as making a video, Georgiatreatment? I personally have no doubt that her
O'Keeffe. She worked unassisted in watercolor anddedication to her art enabled Linda to conquer the
charcoal until 1978 and in graphite until 1984, whendeadly illness.
she reached the advanced age of 96. She died at St.I have always felt that creativity and the source of
Vincent's Hospital, Santa Fe on March 6, 1986 at thelife are of a piece, and that when we are able to
age of 98.understand one we will also understand the other.
Jacqueline Lamba was a French artist who was badlyThe other day, my granddaughters and I were
discriminated against by the male-dominated artisticworking on a few pieces of sculpture. When we
world of the 20th century. Nevertheless shefinished, there stood a little man and his dog, looking
submerged herself in her painting, and produced overas alive as we did. It was uncanny. Out of nothing, an
400 paintings in half a century. Before she died atinert lump of clay, there now was something. It
age 83, she wrote to a friend, "If you hear that I amreminded me of the feeling I had on first seeing my
no longer painting, it is because I have died." Andson Zane as a newborn infant. There was nothing
indeed, miraculously, she went on painting to the endthere, and then all of a sudden, there was a person!
of her life, despite suffering from Alzheimer's Disease.Out of nothing, the gases in the universe, came the
You don't have to be a great artist to experienceplanets and the stars. Out of nothing comes
the benefits of creativity. The men and womensomething. That is the similarity between life and
enrolled in classes at the Alzheimer's Center of thecreativity. In one's creative self reposes the essence
East Bay paint personally meaningful symbols fromof being, a mini-example of the origin of life. No
lives that are fading from their memories. "Art is awonder creative people tend to live a long time.
great way for them to express themselvesFrances Dunham Catlett, an elegant black painter, said
emotionally and physically," said program directorit better. "I face an empty canvas, then begin; the
Lauren Eppinger. "It also highlights their strengths, andbrush moves, and I watch the miracle happen." She is
not their cognitive losses." "The participants are stillstill painting, as her 100th birthday approaches.
creating and doing beautiful work, and their livesJacqueline Baroch is an art therapist at the Albert
come through, past and present," said Micheal Pope,Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia.. Her patient,
deputy director of the center. It seems that theMae, picks up a pen and listlessly scrawls a line on the
creative arts can help provide a path to communicatepaper in front of her. As Baroch gently prods with
that is not verbal.questions about Mae's childhood home, about sisters
The great writer Anatole Broyard said that the artistand brothers, about farm animals and flowers, Mae's
has an antibody against illness and pain. In the depthposture starts to change. Her shoulders come back
of his Parkinson's Disease, all Broyard's old, trivialand her head lifts. Her eyes brighten and she starts
selves dissolved and he was reduced to his essence.to draw with more focus. The clouds of dementia
Wilem de De Kooning at ninety-three years of wagebegin to part, and Mae starts to reminisce about her
was virtually immobilized by Alzheimer's disease. Withyouth. Her awakening through the act of drawing,
the support of his ex-wife, Elaine de Kooning, hesays Baroch, allows Mae to reconnect, for a time,
began a program of psychotherapy and Alcoholicswith an earlier self and to retrieve memories that she
Anonymous. During this period, he painted little, butmight not be able to find without a pen in her hand,,
came out of it with a new style of painting. HeSuch is the power of art, experts say. At a minimum,
formerly had been a perfectionist in his art,art therapy sessions can help a patient recall
sometimes painting the same work hundreds offorgotten memories and express tangled emotions
times. According to Tom Ferrara, one of de Kooning'swhen verbal abilities are eroding. Parkinson's patients
major assistants, "He made a conscious decision towho can't hold a trembling hand still enough to pen
be less self-critical. The paintings became less and lessout a sentence are able to paint fluid brush strokes
crowded, the fluid, undulating forms more clearlyacross a canvas. Stroke patients who can't utter a
defined." During this period, the artist workedword can suddenly speak their names. No one knows
frantically, turning out a painting a week. He wouldexactly how art taps into physical and intellectual
begin by sketching a few abstract forms, usuallymemories muddled by neurodegenerative diseases.
borrowed from one of his earlier works, and thenBut scientists suspect that the process allows people
would paint in and around them, reworking as heto find alternate routes to misplaced memories.
proceeded. According to Ferrara, "the late paintingsInformation in the brain appears to be organized
have an airy lightness and a lyricism for which there ismuch like the entries in a library's card catalog. A
no precedent in half a century of the artist's work."book will have one card as its main entry, but also
Many artists paint in different styles at differentseveral others organized by category linking back to
periods of their lives. What sounds uncanny about dethe book. Similarly, a memory of an event can be
Kooning is that although practically incapacitated byreached directly or through its links with other
Alzheimier's, he nevertheless continued to paint untilinformation stored in the brain. Start drawing a
the age of ninety. How could it be that someonepicture of your childhood home, for example, and
incapable of signing his name, who was unable tosuddenly you might have access to memories of
function in the most basic aspects of living, was ableevents that occurred there. Thus women artists
to paint in a manner comparable to the style ofhave the marvelous ability to find alternate access to
Matisse's cut-paper masterpieces? The neurologisttheir emotions and memories through their art.
Oliver Sacks says he has seen "all sorts of skillsWhatever the state of our health, the disasters no
(including artistic ones) preserved even in advancedone can completely escape, and/or whatever our
stages of dementia. Style, neurologically, is themood may be, we women artists should go on
deepest part of one's being, and may be preserved,creating as long as we live. This will bring us as close
almost to the end."to a long, healthy life as is possible for a human being
Linda Hargrove, The Original Blue Jean Countryto attain.