MESOC Serapeum | Where culture meets AI

Id		971
Author		Reynolds F.
Title		Colour and communion: Exploring the influences of visual art-making as a leisure activity on older womens subjective well-being
Reference		Reynolds F.; Colour and communion: Exploring the influences of visual art-making as a leisure activity on older womens subjective well-being ;Journal of Aging Studies vol:24 issue: 2.0 page:135.0
Link to article		https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?eid=2-s2.0-77949273932&doi=10.1016%2fj.jaging.2008.10.004&partnerID=40&md5=302c98cadc16d6d40d99f5a3f5688d2d
Abstract		Research into the subjective experience of art-making for older people is limited, and has focused mostly on professional artists rather than amateurs. This study examined older womens motives for visual art-making. Thirty-two participants aged 60-86 years old were interviewed. Twelve lived with chronic illness; twenty reported good health. Nearly all had taken up art after retirement; two had since become professional artists. Participants described their art-making as enriching their mental life, promoting enjoyment of the sensuality of colour and texture, presenting new challenges, playful experimentation, and fresh ambitions. Art also afforded participants valued connections with the world outside the home and immediate family. It encouraged attention to the aesthetics of the physical environment, preserved equal status relationships, and created opportunities for validation. Art-making protected the womens identities, helping them to resist the stereotypes and exclusions which are commonly encountered in later life. © 2009 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Results:

Candidate transition variables
Most participants rated their quality of life as good or very good. .
Art-making provided a variety of experiences that enriched the participants inner mental life, and also promoted feelings of connectedness with the wider physical and social worlds. .
The sensual aspects of art-making were experienced as dynamic, bringing a rich inner life, and thereby enhancing wellbeing: I like colour and light and pattern. .
The sensuality of art-making also captured attention, sustained creative effort, and offered distraction from negative experiences for those living in difficult circumstances. .
For those with health problems, such sustained mental absorption helped to alleviate concerns with pain and discomfort, and provided alternative self-definitions. .
Participants described their art-making as enriching their mental life, promoting enjoyment of the sensuality of colour and texture, presenting new challenges, playful experimentation, and fresh ambitions. .
This review now focuses on the contribution of leisure activities to subjective well-being in later life, particularly activities that may be described as cultural and creative. .
Do cultural and creative occupations have a distinctive role to play in maintaining well-being in later life? .
Creative challenges were valued for providing stimulation and opportunities to experience mastery. .
Some felt that their art forged wider connections with nature and the environment, as well as the social world outside their home. .
Developing new skills and ambitions Linked with enjoying art-making as a discovery process, many participants described ongoing personal development, in the form of new skills, ambitions, and aspects of self, emerging through their artistic endeavours. .
This presented new possibilities for artwork, and more generally increased their engagement with everyday life. .
Art-making catalysed mutual social contact as well as fostering connectedness with the outside environment (in all its social, physical, and spiritual aspects). .
Qualitative enquiry into the meaning of such activities, found that participants derived well-being through keeping busy, feeling useful and valued, experiencing mental stimulation and relaxation, and meeting others. .
Looking inwards: Gaining a rich mental life Art-making was valued for its capacity to stimulate thought and learning. .
Participants regarded their art-making as an important aspect of successful ageing, and described gaining numerous psychological benefits such as a sense of achievement, continuity, connection with others, purpose in life, and distraction from everyday problems. .
It encouraged participants to reflect on the personal meanings of their artwork, eliciting detailed narratives about specific episodes of art-making, and their motives for creating the item photographed. .
A few participants reflected on the deeper, symbolic meanings of colour, which increased their sense of vitality and self-expression. .
Positively, the qualitative method empowered the participants to share the meanings of creative art-making in their lives. .
They perceived certain continuities in their creative self-expression whilst also enjoying ongoing growth of skills and self-discovery. .
As participants were creating art at a level that was skilful enough for exhibition, their expertise may have had some bearing on the benefits derived from this activity. .
Regarding artistic activities specifically, studies indicate that creativity need not decline in later life and that some older people gain many personal and social advantages from participation, including meaning, purpose, challenge and a positive identity. .
Praise from fellow artists (whether amateurs or professionals) was experienced as offering a specific and potent source of validation: You get a real sense of achievement from what you've produced at art college . .
They felt that their engagement with art helped them to maintain acceptance within the wider world as a person of value, rather than being categorised by age or disability. .
Appreciating validation by others Participants valued positive feedback from others about their artwork, finding that this enhanced self-esteem. .
It increases one's enjoyment of life, to be giving more attention to these things. .
Since retiring, her artistic projects had become important for providing a new source of satisfaction: That sense of challenge and learning.it's helped me through a lot of what could have been very dead periods, you know. .
They revealed that creative art-making introduces a rich occupational texture into daily life, resulting in cognitive stimulation, social connectedness and ultimately a positive identity resistant to the stigma that is too commonly attached to ageing and ill-health..
The great variety of colours and textures associated with artistic pursuits was experienced as energizing the mind and bringing other subjective benefits: Weaving is splendid. .
Continuing membership of society Art-making offered feelings of connectedness through enabling participants to experience continuing membership of the wider society, rather than feeling excluded into a ghetto of older retired people, or left in isolation at home: If you've got a skill that's marketable, you can get out there and you've got contact with people. .
In the current study, there was greater emphasis on the ways in which visual artmaking forges connections with the wider physical as well as social world, through, for example, sharpened awareness and attention to details of colour and form. .
Enjoying the sensuality of art-making An important source of well-being described by nearly every participant concerned the sensuality of art-making. .
I love taking photographs of things I think are beautiful. .
Close attention to the environment, including observation of colours, textures and shapes, and taking inspirations for new designs, also helped participants who were living with adversities to distract their attention outwards, away from pain, symptoms of ill-health, or grief. .
Art also afforded participants valued connections with the world outside the home and immediate family. .
At least it's a way of getting out and meeting people..
Art was experienced as having playful qualities, with participants gaining feelings of mastery when they steered their projects to a satisfactory completion. .
The satisfactions came not only from finishing an aesthetically pleasing article, but from making a gift that was meaningful to the recipient. .
Creative activities provided a means of crafting the self, through for example, expressing continuities of self in past, present and future projects, maintaining family traditions, engaging in self-reflection, gaining affirmative responses from others, and acquiring a valued identity as an artist. .
Even though artistic activities were mostly carried out within the home, they nevertheless brought participants into contact with others, and helped to maintain reciprocal relationships, based on mutual interests and care-giving rather than age or dependency. .

ARTICLE - CANDIDATE TRANSITION VARIABLES

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