Catch, then, O catch the transient hour; Improve each moment as it flies!–St. Jerome

Let’s Look was on hiatus last week, due to the Easter holiday, but the crew reunited this past Monday for the second meeting with Cole Elementary students. The pairs of buddies started the day in the Entrance Gallery and moved to the Lower Main Gallery, jampacking two hours with a string of activities:

1) To warm up the conversation, Carol prompted the group with a cardboard sign, which read, “Tell your buddy about something really good in your life.” She chimed a bell, and the chitchat ensued. She chimed it again, and the group rehashed their conversations as a whole. 

Christina reported that Tom has twenty-seven grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren. Everyone spontaneously clapped to that. JoVaughn said that his buddy, Joe, told him the Lord is what’s good in his life. Two men mentioned their wives. Bill discovered that TreVahn practices magic. It also turned out a few April birthdays were present, so the group sang the Happy Birthday song, interjecting the names of Bob, Natasha, Waiel, and Sandy.

2) JoAnn began the day’s art lesson with a weighty painting, Giovanni Battista Caracciolo’s  The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, first asking everyone to say what they observed. Arrows were mentioned. Daniel noticed Sebastian was leaning on something, which is difficult to notice in the shadows of the Caravaggio-influenced painting. “Good art detective eyes,” JoAnn would say, when someone made a good observation about the work. She then asked the buddies to talk to each other and create a story around the saint.

 ”How did Sebastian get in this position?” JoAnn asked.

Daniel, always thinking outside the box, said he thought that maybe Sebastian was being punished for stuff his evil twin did. Kameisha said Sebastian started off roaming the sky and was captured when he wouldn’t join the Devil’s side. TreVahn, versed in the saint’s story, said, “I think they killed him because they didn’t agree with what he believed in.”

“How old do you think Sebastian is?”

One dewy-eyed child explained Sebastian couldn’t be over thirty or else he would have wrinkles, to which a few people over twelve laughed. On the subject of his age, JoAnn talked about Sebastian’s muscles, which would later be compared to those of an older Saint Jerome. To underline the use of anatomy in painting, she passed out a page from the Anatomy Coloring Book.

“What bones can you see on Sebastian?” The children began feeling their ribcages.

In the spirit of the painting, two participants in the Staging Old Masters program, Travis Dean and Reuben Stewart, were invited to perform a skit they wrote, a rap about the life and death of Sebastian after JoAnn’s talk. Lisa Harper-Chang, Community Engagement Coordinator, introduced the two, and the actors performed, earning a standing ovation.

3. After a break, Let’s Look assembled downstairs in front of Jusepe de Ribera’s Saint Jerome. Waiel wore a red sheet and posed as Saint Jerome for the beginning of their talk. Carol held a paper thought-bubble over the model’s head, and asked what everyone thought was going through Jerome’s mind. Brenda said it looked like Jerome was confused and trying to make a decision. Tom, concerned about Waiel’s eyes, interrupted the discussion to ask if Waiel could move out of the sun.

“That child’s looking right in the sun,” he said.

Other thoughts suggested for Jerome were “please help me,” and “Lord, help me to get through this.” Then Kameisha told the story of how Jerome would beat himself with a rock to help him focus on translating the Bible. Her teacher had prepped them on this painting.

In a soft voice, Natasha said, “I can see his veins on his arm and chest.”

“How old do you think Saint Jerome is?” asked JoAnn.

“Ninety-nine, because he has a white beard,” said Daniel.

“His fifties, because his body isn’t as robust,” said Chuck.

Bill noticed bags under Jerome’s eyes and said sixties. Simon thought sixty-five, and JoVaghn thought specifically fifty-four. To bring back the idea of anatomy, JoAnn pointed out how thin the subject’s skin looked, and then she and Carol suggested that the buddies compare their hands to one another’s. They did this for a few moments before moving on.

4. After considering the two saints with completely different lives and ages, JoAnn asked the buddies to talk with each other about what is good about being young and what is good about being old. JoVaghn said he could jump high as a young person but he couldn’t drive a car. Kameisha, already thinking ahead, remarked that she had her career to look forward to. Chuck said that what’s good about being older is the amount of knowledge you have attained, like the knowledge Jerome must have had to translate the Bible into several languages.

This week, one of the favorite paintings discussed was Judith Displaying the Head of Holefernes by Luca Giordano. We used the “thought bubble” to imagine what would be running through the heads of the subjects in the painting.
What are the soldiers thinking?
“They probably didn’t like Holefernes anyway.” -Bob
“Whew!” -Tom
“I want to go home!” -Dorothy
What is Judith thinking?
“I told you so!” -Brenda
“Get out of town and never come back!” -Chuck
“This is a new beginning for us!” -Tom
Judith was a heroine for her town, and we talked about our own personal heroes. Here is what the group came up with:
-God
-Dolly Parton
-Martin Luther King Jr.
-Barack Obama
-Michelle Obama

Week 1 The first week of the Alzheimer’s program focused on introductions to one another and to the Pulitzer.

Week 2.Week 2 initiated our exploration of the art. To begin, Carol led a seated movement exercise that incorporated both gesture and music to warm up bodies and minds for the discussion of Old Masters. The first piece discussed was Joachim Wtewael’s Cephalus and Procris (The Death of Procris). JoAnn led a discussion on content, composition, and lines. The group participated in series of activities about the art, including “thought bubbles” and “heart bubbles” to imagine what Cephalus and Procris were thinking and feeling. JoAnn and I also acted out the scene in order to have a 3-D visual of the painting. The group also used a storyboard to understand sequential storytelling and the peak dramatic moment. The second painting discussed was Jean Baptiste Grouse’s The Laundress. JoAnn led the discussion of the content and composition, and also a dialogue about the depiction of women today versus women from the time of the Laundress. The group looked at modern magazine ads of women and compared them to the painting. Carol also reenacted the painting using a bar of soap and a bowl.
The group prepared for their meeting with Cole Elementary in 2 weeks by having their pictures taken and creating a mini bio of themselves to send to the Cole students. For the bios, participants answered these questions: What is your favorite food? What is your favorite color? What is your favorite place at home? What makes you laugh?

Week 3. The participants spent the first few minutes talking with Johnathan Loesch, the Cole Elementary School art teacher. Third, Fouth, and Fifth-graders from Cole will be coming in week 4 to join the adults with Alzheimer’s; each child will be paired with an adult “buddy.” We gave the adults pictures of the children, mini bios the children wrote about themselves, and a drawing that the children had created especially for their new buddy.

The first painting we discussed was Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife by Paolo Domenico. We discussed the content and composition of the painting, and then used the “thought bubbles” and “heart bubbles” to analyze what the subjects were thinking and feeling. Carol passed around a bag of fabrics to generate discussion about the various textures in the painting. We then discussed countenance and facial expression in the paintings by looking at a pair of Grecian masks and also looking at cartoon faces of expressions. We also acted out the painting to have a 3-D example of the art.

The other painting discussed was the Mary Magdalene by Andrea Vaccaro. JoAnn led the discussion about content and composition, and then we used the thought and heart bubbles to analyze the emotion of the painting.