“Luncheon meat” July 14h 2018

Wrexham Maelor Residency Notes

14/7/2018

Erddig Ward

“Luncheon meat”

Ticky previously met Mr G on Erddig ward, and he talked to her about the mines in the locale.

They had sat together and listed all the names of the mines and apparently he had very much enjoyed this topic. So today, when the staff suggested he might benefit from some conversation we gladly obliged.

Something that keeps coming up in our pre and post-workshop discussions (we do a lot of talking!) is that people are trapped on a ward and they seem to very quickly lose a sense of self- and of identity. Being stripped of clothing and freedom, and much choice beyond a restricted menu, they seem to shrink into a bed and have little to occupy themselves with- other than their surroundings- which, very often, are the cause of their misery.

The complex contradiction is that they are in a place of safety, and a place that’s sole purpose is to care for, and to aid recovery. Yet contradicting that is the loss of freedom, and the loss of opportunity to experience the unexpected.

Although we are unable to take patients out of the ward, for a walk, or a cup of tea, we did realise that we are able to aid people in taking journeys via their minds. It struck us to be a potential meditation of sorts- describing something familiar, a happy place, to verbally revisit it and have a break from the current surroundings.

Much of our conversations have been aimed at encouraging conversation and encouraging the sharing of memories of happy places. We hope that in describing to us and using us as a kind of human canvas- that they might later on continue their venture back into the past.

So, with Mr G we asked if he would like to talk some more and if we could type it at the same time. For some reason today he was a lot more verbal. We weren’t sure if it was the typewriter, giving his words a sense of purpose, but I didn’t waste any time and wrote frantically.

Ticky interviewed him about his life in a mining family and about life in Cefn Y Bedd. He seemed to quite enjoy the attention – with me sat on my little empire aristocrat typewriter like a reporter of some kind. He told us his father was a general manager in a mine in Cefn y Bedd. Mr G himself worked in the mine on a Saturday as a school boy, then became a mine surveyor and remained in that village his whole life!

He described meals in the pit (luncheon meat and anything that was growing in the garden) and how the other lads would laugh hard at you if you were ever stupid enough to get yourself lost.

After the little impromptu “interview” was up I asked him if he would like a copy. He said “Yes please”…. And whilst at the photocopier a curious nurse asked if she might have a read. She said:

“Mr G has been here quite a while and he has never told anybody any of this!”

All I can say, is Ticky is very charming!

“Yellow- I bet you weren’t expecting that!” July 14th 2018

Wrexham Maelor Residency Notes

14/7/2018

Evington Ward

“Yellow- I bet you weren’t expecting that!”

Upon arriving at Evington Ward I was introduced to a really lovely man. He immediately moved from his seat and invited me to sit down. This warm cheerful welcome caught me somewhat off-guard because so many people are tired and lethargic in the wards- which is to be expected. This chap though had his bags packed and said that until he was collected he would be very happy to sit and chat.

He asked who I was, and I told him I am an artist here to work on little creative chats together with people on the ward. He told me he is from a very creative family of artists and architects but that he himself is entirely non-creative and has enjoyed alternative success as an athlete. He enjoyed telling me about various family members, their creative mediums and talents, particularly his father. He was very proud of him indeed. He spoke with much love for his wife- hailing her talents as a warm wonderful mother as well as a very able sportswoman. He allowed her all credit for their children’s success which was really lovely to hear. He was a very pleasant person and I admired his ability to remain upbeat against the odds on the ward.

One thing he said gave me an idea. Here is how our conversation went:

Him: “I’m not at all creative, not at all.”

Me: “Well not all art is paint and sketching! Do you consider music to be art? Or poetry?”

Him: “Oh yes, of course. I suppose it is. I love classical music and I do appreciate poetry. Although for me I can’t work out which words to put in what order when it comes to writing poems!”

……Which led me to have a go at some fridge poetry!

He was very interested in the concept and said he had seen it before. So over constant chatting about life, family, holidays, memories and interests (and a cup of tea or two) we made a very sweet piece of text- as and when things came up in conversation. It wasn’t a poem, persay, but he did enjoy it and took definite satisfaction in painstakingly searching for words to complete these 5 lines:

My family are always happy when they do art

My children are great swimmers

The young girl (daughter was not in the magnet vocabulary) loves dancing

We all run fast

It is heaven

I think what touched me most was that he kept apologizing for talking too much. I reassured him that this wasn’t the case and that it was really great to sit and talk to someone so interesting.

We also did a little “All about me” quiz on the typewriter. I usually get these out as a warm up but in this case there had been no need- but for such an active minded man it was really fun to ask the questions as a mere bit of fun.

Amusing answers were

Favourite word: onomatopoeia

Favourite animal: horse

Animal I am most like: A cheetah because I am a very fast runner, even now I’m an old man

Favourite colour: YELLOW! I bet you weren’t expecting that, were you?!

It was a thoroughly enjoyable little session and time flew by. He seemed to enjoy my company too- and I really hope that he gets home to his family soon. They are clearly very dear to him and he spoke of them for the entirety which was touching- and perhaps the secret of his optimism 

“What am I doing here?” July 12th 2018

Wrexham Maelor Residency Notes

12/7/2018

Evington Ward

“What am I doing here?”

Ticky and I went into a ward we have both worked on before. Mrs M was here, and since I met her last week, Ticky also met and worked with her- hearing tales of the river Dee. They had a really lovely chat about fishing the river, and Ticky wrote down some descriptions of memories, and some directions too- which are far more concise than my 2 hours of recorded conversation! (Note to self, learn to write faster and listen at the same time, to save on hours of transcription!)

Arriving in Evington, though, a very distressed lady in the ward had quickly spotted our new “artist in residence” t-shirts and we found ourselves at her bedside. She showed us a photograph of her mother which stood, pride of place, on her little table, and asked if we could paint her. She informed us that her mother had died last year, and sensing her distress we asked if she would like Ticky to draw her, and for me to do some writing. I wasn’t sure on her answer so instead of lugging a typewriter over I opted for a pen and pencil. I helped her to compose a letter to ask for an end to the estrangement of her family. She described to me her battles with alcoholism and we did all we could to appease her. After we completed the letter she seemed a lot calmer. She lay quietly in her bed and when I felt she had said all she had to say I left her to rest.

Mrs M was still here and she remembered us both. They were again talking about the river Dee. I am really keen to take some of these recollections and use them for some typewriter development. I have been making maps in my studio time already, using sentences as lines- and have kept to the roads as the linear dictators for the forms to follow. Ticky suggested using the river dialogue to form a moving line that would represent the river itself- and she thought it could be fun in our collaboration to combine text (me) and object (Ticky) together as an image. Mrs M described using a “fine thread on a bamboo cane” to catch fish, so in our development time we are going to investigate this line of enquiry.

Further to this, I invited Mrs M to have a go at my newly purchased fridge poetry. To begin with she was reserved; I was literally having to separate all the new words- but a word jumped out at her and she immediately got the hang of it, adjusting word suggestions and selecting some really visually stimulating language. As an educated woman, she had a great vocabulary and she wrote such a beautiful mournful piece:

Dream of memories

of a beautiful young woman

She is dancing

beneath the rainbow

With a twinkle in her eye

In the summer breeze

"Not today sorry…" July 4th 2018

Wrexham Maelor Residency Notes

4/7/2018

Erddig Ward

“Not today sorry…”

To our dismay, we were turned away at the Erddig ward today. Staff there suggested one gentleman- but he was visibly aggrieved and wanted to leave. After ruling him out the ward decided that nobody would be interested or suitable. We decided to use the time to regroup together and have a meeting to work out what could be done.

After a coffee and a discussion it was obvious what the problems were:

Þ    Misunderstanding of our intentions by staff

Þ    The misunderstanding being relayed to patients

Þ    Patient refusal

Also

Þ    Patients being misguided and unclear as to our purpose

Staff are assuming that as artists we are here to engage in “arts and crafts”. We aren’t saying it, those words don’t escape our mouths! But, in trying to help, the staff are making assumptions and are labelling our practice as a result of hearing the title “artists”.

What happens?

Patients decline. And why?

One of two assumptions

1)     They think we are here to do some benign activity.

Or worse still,

2)     They think we are going to put pressure on them to create something- or to have an ability or flair. They feel under pressure, and they don’t know what we want from them.

Being exhausted, unwell, and feeling utterly despondent aren’t exactly conducive to sudden sparks of impromptu creativity, therefore we have both decided that from now on we need to anticipate this assumption at the door- and gently replace the invitation of “doing arts and crafts with these ladies” to something more relaxed, and something that might indeed be more beneficial in terms of appeasing some fed up patients. What’s more, our brief to compile patient’s stories, does not in any shape require us to force people into creative endeavours. If they chose to then it is a massive bonus- and those who have had a go at various activities have expressed enjoyment and gratitude afterwards, but we are fast learning that the average person in a bed wouldn’t consider themselves to be “arty” and they all say, “I can’t draw”, “I can’t paint”, or my most loathed remark, “I haven’t got a creative bone in my body.”

There are several issues at stake here- and they all require individual attention, but I would quickly like to touch upon this thought which keeps returning to me on this residency:

When do creative confident children become stifled adults and decide that they have no creative ability? Why?

Why is creativity and an ability to draw combined?

Who told these people they aren’t creative?

What can be done on a large scale to demonstrate to people that creativity applies to innumerable elements of everyday life and isn’t tied to painting/sketching etc.

With regards to patient confusion we have decided to adopt a uniform for us both to wear. Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board are arranging t-shirts, so to compliment matching t-shirts we are going to wear matching black leggings with a black skirt. We hope the continuity in our clothing, and unity between our attire will help remind previous patients, and staff, about who we are and what we are doing. In a hospital full of colour-coordinated staff members, and countless visitors, it is important that people can tell what we are about.

So we hope that next time when we come in that things go a little bit more like how we want: no staff misguidance and hopefully improved patient participation.

Watch this space….

"Up the mountain, then you turn right" June 27th 2018

Wrexham Maelor Residency Notes

27/6/2018

Erddig Ward

“Up the mountain, then you turn right...”

Today was our first session on Erddig ward upstairs.

Erddig is a cardio ward and we set up in a female ward with 8 beds.

Nurses introduced us to a lovely old lady that was especially friendly and open to working with us.

Ticky has this amazing box of sensory objects so she sat down with some items ready to show. Mrs C was really curious and she was happy to just look and listen and share her memories in a very uninhibited way. There was a velvet lined gorgeous wooden box filled with silver spoons which went down a treat. She lifted each one out in turn, examining them closely, laughing with Ticky about her reflection upside down, and repeatedly enjoying one souvenir spoon with the arc de triumph on it. She told us about where her mother kept her spoons (“There was a cabinet with glass doors at the top for all the glasses, then the spoons and things were all kept down at the bottom.”) It was really nice slowing things down and just looking together.

Not long after we brought out my typewriter. Again- Mrs C was curious and happy to have a go. We didn’t realise immediately but after a little time it became apparent she would occasionally experience confusion and some short term memory problems. But when it came to her childhood home there were no such issues.

She began by writing her name then asked me to write down her childhood address. Maps, and childhood memories are a running theme in my work- both in my own personal pieces of work but also during one-on-one sessions with older people in care homes during my cARTrefu (#2) residencies.

We carefully wrote down the address, beginning again when I mis-spelled the name of the village. (Mrs C was insistent that we get the address correctly spelled!) I asked her about what the house looked like and Ticky asked if she could give us directions to get back to her childhood home- which was really lovely because Mrs C spoke with such happiness about how to get there and how it looked. ………………….“Up the mountain, then you turn right, sharp right by the fingerpost… Then about a quarter of a mile down the hill and there’s a gate. The farm is down there. It’s a dead-end then.” (“What does it look like?”) ….. “When you get to it, you can only see the gable end. It’s a farm. ….It was lovely living there; I loved it.”

We talked about family, and brothers and sisters. I asked “What was your fondest memory of being there? What was it like?” and I didn’t expect such a quick and vivid story- but after about or 5  seconds of thinking. She began laughing with such happiness in her eyes and this is what she said:

“I do remember one day! I was milking on the Sunday morning- and a cow kicked me AND the bucket right into the side! …I had to go to chapel afterwards. The milk went into my hair- and I had to half wash it. The bucket went this way, and I went that way!.... It was my confirmation that day, as well!”

“… I wish I was a Gorilla” June 21st 2018

Wrexham Maelor Residency Notes

21/6/2018

Evington Ward

“… I wish I was a Gorilla”

Ticky and I got started today on Evington Ward which is a Gastroenterology ward.

We set up a workspace in a male ward of 6 beds- 5 of which were in use.

In planning we discussed a free-flow mark-making activity to promote creativity and hopefully relax participants but to begin with none of the patients were keen on the idea of getting out of their beds so we began sitting with individuals to see if we could be creative at bedsides.

I approached one particularly enthusiastic and sociable individual. Sensing that if he got involved then others might be able to watch and feel inclined to have a go themselves, I thought he would be a good person to ask first. It so happened that this patient had a keen eye for straight lines and details so although he was unwilling to cut paper or take part to begin with I managed to get a cheeky dialogue going about the fact he was soon to be discharged and that perhaps he might humour me in making a celebratory piece of dictionary montage poetry via word association as a quick fire activity.

It went something like this:

Going home=    Family

Family=        Son

Son=           Companionship

Companionship= Love

Love=          Lifelong

Lifelong=      Together forever

By now he felt a bit more confident and proud of his piece so he typed the title “Going home” on my typewriter in red and black so he could decide which looked best against the existing bits of text.

I photocopied the work and let him take the original home to give to his family. It was to be his son’s birthday the following day so I hope he was inclined to give the poem to his son.

The patient at the next bedside had two visitors with him who told me he was hard of hearing and had dementia and they told me he was unlikely to want to take part in any activity due to his health conditions and having shaky hands but I asked him if he was up for chatting and he was keen and friendly. I asked him “So what are you into?” and his initial response was, “Me?! Nothing?!” But when a reworded it as “What do you really like? What makes you happy” he suddenly became animated and told me about his passion for nature and wildlife documentaries. We spoke about places he had visited in his lifetime and began talking about animals: which he admires, which he is afraid of, which he would be if he were an animal.

He said to me “I wish I was a gorilla for their strength” which seemed particularly poignant to me because men don’t often speak about such matters. I liked the honesty and directness of the answer and of all the things we talked about it felt most humble so I thought ink blocks would be the best way to compose this quote. Ticky had brought some of a great size for this purpose so I used hers.

He didn’t want to physically print the letters so instead I pulled out various sized options for each letter for him to pick a typeface and he would indicate where on the paper he wanted the mark. He was very relaxed and patient while I rattled around looking for as many letter choices for him so that he would feel that he had made significant creative decisions for the collaboration to have been his words put down manually for him by myself.

I photocopied both of these patients’ images so I could keep a record and they were both really pleased to have a handmade image to keep. I was glad they didn’t suggest putting the pieces straight into the bin- it reassured me that the exercise had been enjoyable for them as participants.

Whilst I worked with these individuals Ticky was busy working with a lady from another part of the ward on the mark-making activity, and she also worked with a chap using a game consisting of scrabble pieces without a board, used to write words. They had a go at writing the longest Welsh word, then latterly a poem! When we left I heard the chap say to Ticky: “Thank you so much for coming and entertaining me. It has been so much better than the usual sitting and reading the paper.” This really made me smile because there was such sincerity in his voice.

It was really reassuring knowing that Ticky was working with me today. I find her relaxed personality very calming and he has a very free way of working which people react well with. I’m enjoying working with her so much. She is organised as a lead artist but calm and I feel that she has faith in me which gives me faith to be confident in my abilities. I love the way she sets the tone with music- it relaxes the whole room and starts conversation.

Today was a really nice afternoon. I’m happy people had a go and humoured us, and also enjoyed a change of scenery. Even those who didn’t participate seemed to enjoy watching the unusual goings on in front of their bed!