Making A Difference? I Hope So!

Well Dorset Art Weeks is all done for this year. The signs are down and the unsold paintings are finding their way back into storage slots and cupboards in my studio. The pieces that have sold are all getting Certificates of Authenticity and Thank you notes attached.

I’ve spent the past few weeks figuring out how to create a little difference to the people who have supported me in my journey to…

It’s Nearly Over!

Dorset Art Weeks 2016 has been a phenomenal success for me! I’ve enjoyed many visitors, all of whom (bar one or two weirdo’s) has given me great feedback and encouragement!

Thank you so much to everyone who has visited and commented, taken a card, signed up for my newsletter and purchased my art. Every bit of feedback is logged and in the percolator great things are happening.

I am now thinking…

Dorset Art Weeks: Exhibition News

Well this past week has taught me a lot about marketing my art. Simply talking about it to interested strangers has done loads for my confidence. As an artist it has given me new vigor and I’m back in the studio playing with oil paints again… something I thought was over for me.

I’ve made many sales in the past week that have been an absolute joy. Seeing young artists walk out with tips,…

In Dementia Awareness Week, Sarah Thorpe shares her experience of how living with dementia can transform churches.

Today I’m at Church House, Westminster, meeting with representatives of 26 dioceses to talk about dementia and church – everything from practical worship to the theology of dementia.

It’s the first time there has been a gathering like this, but with 850,000 people in the UK living with dementia, it’s an important one.  It’s strong to be able to share experiences and resources together across the dioceses, sharing such a momentum in becoming more dementia-friendly churches.

One of the things about dementia is that it takes us to the heart of what matters – and what does not matter. My father, Theo Christophers, was diagnosed with dementia 7 years ago.  As we say in our family, ‘We learn new dance steps together, as the patterns change’.

Dementia is personal, but it is also at the heart of church, taking us to the heart of our faith. There’s so much letting go with dementia – it’s costly, with an on-going sense of bereavement.

With Alzheimer’s Disease, you’re likely to notice the impact short-term memory – so facts, names, dates may all be muddled and in due course lost.  But the heart level, the feelings, the love can guide us forwards: “where there is knowledge, it will pass away… these three remain: faith, hope and love.  But the greatest of these is love” (1 Corinthians: 8&13).

In our family, the connections are so different now from those of ten years ago – but the life and the love is still there, to be glimpsed and relished.  So my dad, who in his days as a solicitor taught me so much about incisive head-level analysis, continues to teach me so much in this zany, haphazard journey of the heart that we all share together. In the words of the poet Malcolm Guite, from his Stations of the Cross sonnets (Station X, where Jesus is stripped of his garments):

“Now is the time to loosen, cast away The useless weight of everything but love”.

I’ll always be grateful to John and Margaret Bridgman. They invited me to join Margaret at “Singing for the Brain” a year or two back. There’s no differentiation between volunteers, people living with dementia and their families and friends and carers: you look round the circle and simply notice that everyone is having a wonderful time together. That’s the feeling we all value so much – and it’s inspired the monthly Forget-me-not tea for people living with dementia and their carers that we now hold in St Andrew’s Church, Shifnal. That’s properly inclusive. And it takes us to the heart of our faith: we are all valued equally as children of God. Churches Together in Whitchurch, north Shropshire, has recently started a new group called “Forget-me-not Time Together”.   There’s a warm welcome the moment you come in, there’s music playing in the background and there are name badges for everyone. People are free to look at books or get involved with jigsaws or colouring, or simply to chat.  And there’s a different main activity each time the group meets – sometimes singing, sometimes art or craft, sometimes baking or making.  So when I was there last month, Chris played his guitar and we all sang a good range of songs, from Cliff Richard’s “Summer Holiday” to “Michael rowed the boat ashore” and “If you’re happy and you know it” – with actions!  And there’s tea provided – a cuppa and cakes.

What strikes you is the friendly informality, with everyone enjoying a lovely relaxed afternoon together. With dementia, it’s all too easy for people to feel lonely and isolated, embarrassed to go out.  An Alzheimer’s Society survey of people living with dementia confirmed that 61% feel lonely and 44% say they’ve lost friends.  And a Carers UK survey tells us that 83% of carers have felt lonely or socially isolated as a result of their caring responsibilities.

Time Together is a wonderful, practical way of confronting those challenging statistics. How strong to stay in step together, supporting one another as patterns change, being there for one another. In one sense, it’s simple: but it’s also profound, getting to the heart of things. I don’t think there can be a better way of becoming a more dementia-friendly church at the heart of a more dementia-friendly community.

I’ve also been inspired by Josie Edwards, the co-ordinator for St Matthew’s Church, Donnington Wood with a local residential home for adults with complex needs.

Josie came along reluctantly to a “Dementia-Friendly Churches” course. But she immediately connected with something she heard there.  We talk about meeting people where they are, as the dementia progresses – “crossing the bridge” to meet people in their world, rather than trying to drag them back into ours. So Josie and her partner Chris are now experimenting with different ways of making connections: they were bowled over by the transformation when they took along a tape of 1960s music, drawing out a response in a way that a waterfall of words may not. Recently, they have tried some church window artwork at the home.  You can see the beautiful results: you can see the light shining through.

In our churches, we have so much to offer to people living with dementia and their families and friends – and we have so much to learn from them too.  It’s a journey from head-level belief and doctrine to heart-level belonging, being with one another.  These practical ways of trying things out really encourage me to try out ideas and notice when they open up life-affirming connections. I hope you’ll be inspired by them to try out something new in your church, looking for the doors that may open.

Dementia Awareness Week UK

It is a big week for DAI members in the UK as today is the beginning of Dementia Awareness Week in the UK. To coincide with it and the acceptance of a human rights approach to dementia by ADI and the ADI Council members in Budapest, Dementia Alliance International is releasing its first official publication on human rights for people with dementia.

Image: Professor Peter Mittler and Kate Swaffer…

As part of Dementia Awareness week I will be sharing work from my recent project @itsnicetoknowyou_project This is Jean and a memory she has shared through the life stories part of the project. 

Visit http://www.hannahwrightphotography.co.uk/its-nice-to-know-y… to learn more about this project 

#whatyoudontsee

You ask, “why are you doing this to yourself?” as if this is something I chose.

The black hole devouring my soul, becoming increasingly, ravenously hungry with every breath. Something I can’t see, so how could you?

Scavenging for a fix, freedom, serenity. The sessions. The sedation. The screams. All hidden within the deepest quadrant of my mind.