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“My work, despite the challenges my illness presents, is
perhaps more profound,
more meaningful and more joyful
than ever before. I’ve learned to accept what I
used to consider a betrayal of my body. The act of creating has
been and will always
be an act of hope.”
Diana Van Nes
PDCreativity Participant
“I have never received any formal training, yet feel
deeply that by some miracle I
have been awarded the
incentive and capability to paint…. I have a hobby that
allows me peace, satisfaction and an escape from my
condition. Parkinson’s took
away, then decided to give
back.”
Janet Ward
PDCreativity Participant
“Instead of bemoaning the fate of being a victim of
Parkinson’s, put it to use in ways
that may help your
fellow suffers such as volunteering in clinical studies
and
participating in support groups. Stretch your range
and learn something new.”
Du-Can Chan
PDCreativity Participant
“...knowing what Parkinson’s may eventually do to you
can vividly sharpen your
focus, help separate the
trivial from the important, and enrich your work. I have
also
found that continually striving to solve the
creative problems (that constitute the bulk
of artistic
enterprise) is a very effective way to fight the
inevitable fatigue and
depression of PD.”
Frederick Wessler
PDCreativity Participant
“When I paint, I’m taken away to a place where there’s
no PD. It’s like going on a
vacation without leaving
home. I escape from this body, into a place of solitude,
calmness and peace.”
Marilyn Bucherer
PDCreativity Participant
"I really love the website you have created. I
often read what the various artists say
about their work
and how it helps them deal with the losses and
difficulties they
experience. Whenever I feel
somewhat down, their words give me encouragement.
It
makes me feel I am part of a larger community, a
world-wide community."
Sheila Moriarty
PDCreativity Participant
"[The] therapeutic power of art is temporary - it can liberate the patient only while the
performance or the creative act is occurring. But knowing that they can be liberated in
this way, and in doing so, reclaim, for a while, their healthy selves, is profoundly
encouraging and therapeutic for patients with parkinsonism.
Moreover, I suspect…that the ability to turn to creative activity may, perhaps, slow
the advance of the disease. And even if it does not, it can activate the patient, allowing
him to fight and sometimes conquer it for years on end.
Is there anything we can learn about the actual mechanisms of disease from this
extraordinary power of art and creativity in overcoming parkinsonism? This is for a
future generation of neuroscientists to discover, but I cannot help thinking it is a
subject ripe for exploration.... The parkinsonian patient knows, and can express, the
experience of parkinsonism as no mere scientist or physician can, and we doctors and
therapists must continue to learn from this."
Oliver Sacks, M.D.
Renowned Neurologist
Author, Awakenings
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