Creativity and Parkinson's

The relationship between creativity and Parkinson's disease is a very interesting one. It's a topic that I've heard people discuss, off and on, since my 2009 diagnosis. A recent Israeli study set out to examine this link—theoretical until now—from a clinical standpoint. I invite you to read this fascinating article about the results.

The Parkinson's Disease Foundation has embraced this theory for some time. Every year since 2010, they have produced a wall calendar as "part of PDF's Creativity and Parkinson's Project, an initiative that encourages those living with Parkinson's to explore their creativity and its potentially beneficial effects."

I contribute to the PDF's online gallery, and have been fortunate enough to have been selected to be included in the calendar for the last two years. You can view the gallery, get more information and order a free calendar on their website.

Personally, it's hard to say whether I've become more creative since being diagnosed with PD. As an empty-nester who is no longer part of the working world, I've certainly had more time for my art, and have found it to be very therapeutic. For the past 6 years, just my left side has been affected by PD, but that may be changing. However, I have no plans to abandon my art just because my right hand starts to move a bit unpredictably—who knows, it may add a spontaneous flair to my work!

Calendars

Before we get too far into 2013, I want to share the little calendars that I made for this year. They started out as Christmas gifts for my book club, but I was pretty happy with how they turned out and made a few more for friends and family members as well.  Early in the year, I'd thought about doing more of my "botanical hearts" to make one for each month, but that just didn't happen. As it turned out, I had fun selecting from among my drawings to find one that suited each month (sorry, my photos are a tad askew):

I love packaging, so I placed the pages in a festive red box mailer from Paper Source. The little glassine envelope holds a stand and a hanging clip. The stand is a little place card holder that I found at Crate and Barrel. Because the paper that I used was a little too thin to stand upright on its own, I cut a piece of heavy white card stock slightly smaller than the 5 x 7 calendar pages; it can be placed in the stand behind the page.

As an option to the stand, I included a little bulldog clip so that the whole year can be tacked up on a bulletin board. And since the pages are 5 x 7, they could also be displayed in a simple photo frame.

I got a lot of  nice "You should sell these!" remarks, which gave me etsy-on-the-brain again, but honestly, I'm still not convinced that I could make any profit in that scenario. Maybe I'll stop blathering on about it and just try it someday. Then again, I ran across this great piece yesterday on  the fabulous website, Brain Pickings. In a letter to his teenage son back in 1927, writer Sherwood Anderson wrote this wonderful sentence:

“The object of art is not to make salable pictures. It is to save yourself.”

Amen.