Commun ty Matters Lawrence Presbyterian Manor
July 2016
Start painting — at any age! By Heidi Raschke for Next Avenue
Megan Jackson is the kind of person people describe as an old soul. “It’s hard for me to really connect in my own age group, and that’s always been the case,” says the painter who created an untitled work selected for publication by Next Avenue (see page 4). “I’ve always had older friends.” Before Jackson created this work of painting and collage, she wasn’t familiar with the terms “artful aging” or “creative aging” — which refer to the practice of engaging older adults in participatory, professionally run arts programs with a focus on social engagement and skills mastery. But she knew many people who were living it. “Anyone — anyone — can be an artist.You hear people all the time say, ‘Oh, I don’t have any artistic talent,’ which is not true,” Jackson says. “You just have to do it whether you think you have talent or not, you have to get out there and try it.” Jackson offers two tips on how you, too, can let go of the pressure and get started doing art: ART, continued on page 4
The Fourth of July is fun, but we also recognize our veterans who have served.
Fourth of July memories Independence Day is a highlight of every summer, as communities come together to celebrate our nation’s birthday (this year is her 240th!). We asked our residents about some of their favorite memories of fun on the Fourth of July. Picnics, fireworks, concerts, road trips, friends and family — and the occasional giant “snake” — that’s what the Fourth means to us. Beverly Burrows: Back in the 1920s and 1930s we watched the Fourth of July fireworks from my grandfather’s old car, which had a roll-back roof. The fireworks were held at the city golf course, and there was always a crowd. INDEPENDENCE, continued on page 3
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Christie Patrick, executive director Angela Fonseca, marketing director To submit or suggest articles, contact afonseca@pmma.org. Telephone: 785-841-4262 Fax: 785-841-0923 Address: 1429 Kasold Dr., Lawrence, KS 66049-3425 Our mission: We provide quality senior services guided by Christian values. LawrencePresbyterianManor.org
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Community Matters July 2016
Share your secret to staying healthy We will focus on healthy aging in an upcoming issue of Community Matters. What are your secrets for staying healthy as you age? What advice do you have for others? Have you faced a health crisis and made life-altering changes as a result? If you’ve got a story to share, contact Marketing Director Angela Fonseca, and your story could be featured in an upcoming edition of Community Matters. Like us on Facebook
INDEPENDENCE, continued from page 1
Betty Jo Miller: In my small Iowa hometown, people gathered and listened to the band play until it got dark. Then the fireworks began, and it would be a great display. My friend and I would buy popcorn and eat it while we watched and gabbed. Nita Grier: In my youth, we had a Fourth of July neighborhood picnic. This was before the city had public fireworks at the stadium. In our block there were a lot of families and lots of kids. A wonderful place to grow up. We had this everybodybring-food picnic and shared our fireworks when it grew dark enough. One year, my dad (a chemist) made “snakes” for us using an empty tuna fish can as forms. Now, normally, a snake was about 3/8 inch in diameter and maybe grew to 10-12 inches or so.You could light it with one match or punk. Ours were 3 ½ inches across. The daddies in the neighborhood had a hard/fun time trying to get them to light. They had to have the entire top surface lit at once. Someone got a blow torch of some kind and boy-oh-boy, did we have snakes! They grew and grew and grew, grotesque actually, so huge did they get — 50 to 60 feet or more. They just curled and curled. We had four or five of them. Us kids took them home and looped them over the clothes lines. They lasted for days until the south wind finally destroyed them. The city fireworks were fine when they started. But we lost some neighborhood togetherness when the city took over. Pete and Joan Anderson: Fourth of July in 2000. Memory: traveling from Duluth, Minn., on Highway 1 through birch forests to Ely, Minn., and stopping to put our tired feet into a cold little creek rushing over smooth rocks. Fun! Visiting the International Wolf Center. Eating dinner at the Chocolate Moose Café on Main Street in Ely and then watching fireworks over Shagawa Lake. The next day to Chisholm, Minn., where my mom, Dorothy Anderson, grew up, and looking for Clearwater Lake and a memory from childhood. We found Clearwater Lake and did not recognize any cabins. Joan said, “Take another turn here.” Something sparked in my old mind. We turned down the drive -- there it was, the cabin my grandfather Smith built in the late 1920s. The little cabin right on the lake, the garage, and yes, the outhouse. Many childhood summers were spent here. Sometimes you just have to listen to your wife! Mary Ann Strong: On July 4, 1958, we were living in Oklahoma where my husband was editor of the smallest daily newspaper in the USA. We were preparing for a big fireworks display for the neighborhood children. I was very pregnant and not looking forward to a wild evening. Plans changed suddenly and I was hustled to the hospital for the birth of a wonderful second son — 9-pound, 10-ounce Paul! He is still coming to my rescue whenever I call! Like us on Facebook
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ART, continued from page 1
1. Color and doodle “This whole coloring book craze is huge right now, because it’s already there for you and you can put your creativity in with your color and design. Painting can definitely be the same thing,” Jackson says. “People think that I must be an excellent drawer. I’m not. When I take my pencil, I’m scribbling. I’m not doing refined drawing.” She suggests trying this exercise, which encourages you to take a bit more of a risk than filling in a prefab coloring page: Take a black Sharpie and draw an abstract image using one continuous line — don’t lift up the pen. Then color in the shapes. “You’re basically making your own coloring page,” says Jackson. “There’s freedom because you’re making your own shape, but then there’s that structure of, ‘Oh, now I just get to color in.’” Untitled painting and collage by Megan Jackson 2. Make art a daily practice “I did have to discipline myself and I did have to paint every day, even if it was literally for five or 10 minutes during nap time,” Jackson says. “You just have to keep practicing and revising and learning from past pieces and works. I took that practice into play with my painting which really allowed me to open up and to paint bad things.” © Twin Cities Public Television 2016. All rights reserved.
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Community Matters July 2016
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