Lost to Dementia
Charlotte Burgess, Kate Buntine and Katie Brunsdon
This piece explores the effect of dementia: the impact of destroying someone’s memories of themselves and those they love.
Memories mould us into the people we become. We build up these memories over time to create the relationships around us that provide support through the hardest of times. As these memories start to degrade, the world we have created can fail us and we may become isolated in a narrowing tunnel of pressing concerns.
This collaborative piece was painted by Charlotte, supported by design and research input from Kate and Katie.
The full group (3) contributions also included: Nathan Shaquille Browning, Cherry Bruce,Isabel Jane Buckley, Elizabeth Bulkeley-Bye,Isobel Lucy Burridge, Anna Esme Cairns, Fatima Camp, Sarah Canavan.
Year One, 2018 Foundations of Medicine Student Conference
I particularly like this picture because it is a very poignant reminder of how precious our memories are when we get older. The clarity of the patients face and the pictures of her memories stand in stark contrast to the world around her which has become blurry and indistinguishable. This highlighted to me how our memories and experiences form who we are in our lives, and as these memories begin to float away and leave us we can become lost to the world. I also like the way that the patient is staring straight at the viewer, as if giving us an invitation into this new, foreign world.
This piece stood out to me because it highlights the importance of memories, particularly as we age. The woman in the photo is amongst a bluey grey background, possibly representing the blurriness and dullness of everyday life. Even though the memories she has are represented by black and white photos, they are clear- emphasising how our past experiences are what stay with us and shape the person we become in later life. The memories appear to be leaving the woman in the piece, and with it her expression is one of blankness perhaps suggesting without our memories we lose a part of ourselves too.
I like this piece because it shows the truly awful nature of dementia for those surrounding the person: the fact that as a doctor, family member or friend, there is little you can do. The painting shows the notion of the person’s memories slowly drfiting away and that your are forced to watch someone you love turn into a completely different person. I also think this painting really demonstrates how hard dementia is for the person with the disease. The painting shows a solemn face of a person slowly losing who they are- their memories. For someone to have spent years of their life making memories, building relationships and becoming wise through experience and then to have their mind regress so much so that they can’t make their own decisions, it just seems like a cruel way to die.
I particularly found that this painting spoke to me the most out of all the art works that i saw. Having witnessed people with dementia and how they change over time. I witnessed the suffering they went through and how their minds changed over time. The picture to me shows the woman slowly being absorbed into a blurry background with their memories shrinking and decreasing over time.
I found this piece to be particularly interesting as it illustrates, like the title suggests, how lost you can feel in your own mind as the light of your memories starts to slowly faid away. I know how hard it is to watch someone close to you to slowly give in to dimentia but I can’t imagine how hard it is to watch your own memories, even the most precious ones to disappear. The people you hold dear, your successes, your struggles, your failures and a lifetime of experiences that have shaped who you are, all of them stripped away in a matter of years. I appreciate the emptiness of the woman’s gaze and the narrowing trail of photos(memories) left in a blurred backround showcasing the confusion and the void a patient feels as more memories are lost to this disease.
This piece stood out to me because it shows how we are all affected by our memories throughout our lives, and how these memories help to make us who we are. From memories about things we’ve done, to memories about who our loved ones are, forgetting these memories can mean we forget pieces of who we are.
The woman in the piece has a lost look in her eyes, you can see with the memories leaving her head. Each of these memories is a moment which together help her make sense of the world she finds herself in today – loosing these memories has left her feeling lost within her own mind.
This piece really illustrates the magnitude of the loss caused by dementia. It’s not simply just loss of memories, its loss of what makes a person themselves so in a way its a person slowly losing themselves fading away into a shell what they once were.
The drawing style looks almost as if its a computer glitch where the data inside the person is being corrupted and lost forever. The woman looks as if she is losing her identity indicated by the lost look in her eyes along with the paint surrounding her fading.
I like this painting because I believe it accurately portrays the effect of dementia on the minds of its sufferers. I’ve heard that the hardest thing about watching a loved one suffer from dementia is the fact that they seem like a completely different person, I can imagine that being extremely difficult especially when interacting with them. This change is personality is brought on by many effects of the dementia but the most prominent being the loss of memories. This loss of memories is illustrated in this image through the tunnelling of pictures out of the woman’s head. This is in reference to the slow but surely loss in long term memories, the memories being depicted by the pictures.
This painting stood out to me because I feel like it accurately represents some of my loved ones with dementia. The foreground of the painting shows a woman who appears emotionless with her vacant stare. The blankness of her expression makes her appear detached from the world around her. This feels reinforced by the way her memories of her own loved ones are shown to drift out from her mind into the blurriness of the dull grey background. This background seems to symbolise confusion while the randomness of the strokes of paint also shows this new disorder to her world. The way her body begins to blur into the background seems to represent that she is too losing herself.
This painting stood out to me as a poignant reminder of how important memories are as we grow older. Having witnessed people being affected by dementia, I find this painting a very good representation of how people can be lost to dementia as they lose the memories that make them who they are. The blue/grey background creates a sense of dullness. Additionally, the woman’s vacant, lost expression makes her appear detached from the outside world. The black and white photos appear to be moving away from the woman in the painting, which shows how dementia gradually causes the person to lose the memories that make them the person they are.
This painting was particularly moving to me, having reminded me of my time volunteering in a care home, specifically, sitting with a resident as she showed me her photo albums from her teenage years. The blurred effect below the shoulders of the woman seems to reflect her progressive loss of memories, and perhaps her sense of self too. Furthermore, the chaotic brush strokes surrounding the woman reflect the perception of the world for someone with dementia. The photos that are leaving the woman’s memory make a strong statement, and remind me of the care home resident I sat with – her blank expression towards some photos that had clearly slipped her mind are very similar to that of the woman in the artwork.
I like how this piece portrays the fragile yet powerful nature of our memories. Memories act on our emotions and cognition – behaving both as a coping mechanism and a means of making sense of the world around us (who we are, who we love). Dementia changes the way patients remember things – it can become blurry as the blurred paint strokes in the artwork suggests – until it gets lost all together. I like that this is expressed as being jarring for a patient, through the juxtaposition of the vivd details of the photograph and the faded and more rough paint strokes. I also like how you’ve portrayed the social aspect of dementia (how it may defend patients’ families, friends and relationships), through selecting images/memories of the patient with their loved ones.
This piece really stood out to me as it highlighted how important memories are to each individual, especially memories of youth which often remind us of a happier time. The way the pictures are situated as floating away shows the loss of these memories, these are the final moments before all sense of self is lost. The blank stare of the lady further reinforces this and the way her body begins to fade into the background implies that as you loose your memories you loose yourself as well. The use of the colour blue along with the blank stare indicates a real sense of coldness and loss. I interpret the background as water, that the woman is floating away from her memories, just in isolation with nothing you can do to get back to yourself. Who are you without your memories? When I’ve cared for people with dementia, I’ve often found that talking about memories of youth often reflect happiness. Even when people are unable to communicate, i believe that it’s import to continue talking and interacting with the patient as even though they may have lost part of themselves you can still bring about happiness.
The blank expression portrayed in this painting highlights what life with dementia can look like to so many. It’s not a look of any particular emotion, of like or dislike even with fleeting black and white memories that perhaps once may have meant a great deal to someone. White spots within the blue framework to me signifies the absence of emotions regarding specific previous encounters or now unfamiliar faces. This along with the contrast of only one image adjoining the head in contrast to many further away from the head portrays the loss of recollection.
I found this really beautiful, having the photographs escape the person’s mind. it really puts into perspective how dementia is more than just occasional forgetfulness or a bad memory, rather its the removal of almost entire lifetimes that may never return. The way it’s painted almost makes it look like the subject is fading away as well and it makes you realise how much of a person, whether their soul, character etc is made up of their memories. Are you still you if you have no recollection of the things that shaped you? Seeing the picture of her and her husband makes you think about how those close to dementia patients deal with this condition, what is it like to watch someone you’ve spent your life with slowly forget everything around them, including you?
This particular artwork had a profound effect on me, having witnessed my grandmother suffer with dementia in the latter stages of her life. The patchy blue background depicts the disorientation expressed in patients with the condition. Particularly poignant to me is the faded shoulder/chest area, suggesting a gradual degradation of identity. This is what I interpret to be the most difficult aspect of this disease for the child of a dementia-afflicted person to deal with – caring for someone who may not be able to fully appreciate their parental bond and relationship with their children anymore. The memories fading away into the upper right portion of the artwork mourn the loss of experiences which have built that person’s view of the world, with the individual pictures used in the piece demonstrating this is a very tangible way. The blank expression on the woman’s face contrasts with the joyful visages in the photos, which had quite a chilling effect on me.
This piece stood out to me as I feel it very effectively portrays how dementia can cause an entire lifetime’s worth of memories and identity to quietly drift away, leaving the person feeling lost and stranded. The blurred background portrays the confusion and isolation dementia can cause while the blurring of the body also seems to hint at the loss of someone’s sense of self as a result of the disease. I also like the use of calm colours (primarily blue and white) in this piece as I feel this demonstrates the cruel way in which dementia slowly and subtly progresses while not being as visible or sudden as many other diseases. Finally, I really like the way the photos spread out as they move away from the woman’s head as it seems to create a sense of her memories being clear and concentrated at first and then just dispersing away until they are out of reach.
This piece particularly stood out to me as it captures the importance of memories in shaping our lives and being. The stark contrast between the monochromatic photos and the use of colour in the painting itself really emphasises the fleeting memories. I particularly like the use of blurring to express the hazy feeling of losing this memories; this technique makes effect of these dissipating memories very bold and apparent. Having worked on dementia wards I really felt drawn to this piece of work and enjoy the way emotions are portrayed through not only the subject’s facial expression, but also colour and artistic style and technique.