MiT, 6th senior days 6 & 7

But first, the cute niece story —

They both needed to have their bangs trimmed, so I did the deed this morning, out on the front deck. Afterwards, they asked if the deck needed to be swept. I said the birds will use the hairs to build nests.

Off we went to our respective events for the day, me with my 6th senior and they shopping at Bridgeport. I picked them up late in the afternoon.

When we returned, there was a beautiful little bird's nest sitting on the chair on the front deck.

"The birds built the hairs into a nest!" They were pretty excited.

As it turned out, the neighbor (the one that brought me the mummified mouse) was out pruning and found the nest. And of course he brought it for us.

It was a pretty magical moment while it lasted.

OK, my 6th senior. Of the people I've worked with, she's probably the most affected by dementia, but also the most driven to create. For the most part, she can not remember anything about the gocco process, other than that she has to press down. And often, while we're printing, after each print, she asks why the print itself does not look like the screen (where the inks have spread)

She was a printmaker (intaglio), and I've been perplexed/confused/frustrated by some of her desires and requests in terms of what she wants to do. I finally figured out this week that at least one of the issues is that she doesn't get plate tone with silkscreen, and she wants/expects plate tone. In intaglio, you get this beautiful soft plate tone, in addition to the dark lines where the plate has been etched. Unfortunately, you're just not going to get that with silkscreen, or with the gocco.

So I've focused on trying to get her to create multi-layered prints, to get a richer and more complex tone. I'm also trying different ways of generating image. We've used some of her collages as starting points, we've tossed various things I've brought on the copier; and this week, I had her draw and collage specifically to create a gocco screen. Initially, she had resisted drawing while we worked together, but this week, she was willing to that. Probably because I did not offer her another option this week, I just asked her to draw something that we could use.

I found out from the activities coordinator that she had wanted to drop out (she thought the process 'childish'), but her son convinced her to continue. I feel a little bit like I'm walking on eggshells, not sure how to work with her, so each week I try some different ways to create images. I just feel like the other shoe is going to drop any time and she's going to quit.