Art and Dimensia

Art comes in many forms. Abstract and realism are just two examples that are special in their own way - abstract art may be great choice to show a color scheme to express happiness, realism may be a better choice if one wants a breathtaking landscape. Many people use art as a way to express themselves, including patients with dimentia. Different forms of dimentia can be the cause of different kinds of art. Patients with frontotemporal dimentia (FTD) are quite good at copying what was already created. Those with Alzheimer's disease (AD) can create beautiful abstract works with interesting color schemes. The article "Portraits of Artists" includes an example of such abstract art with a purple and blue gradient. Because patients with AD lose their visuospatial skills over time, affected patients tend to get more and more abstract, which would be expected since painting realistically would require outstanding visuospatial skills.

A tidbit of information I found particularly interesting was the mention of a woman who experienced a stroke affecting her dorsal stream. Because this affects the "where" when thinking visually, she was unable to focus on an entire scene, though she was able to focus on just one object. In this case, I do not think the stroke (though it most likely affected her way of living) affected her art in a bad way. It switched from being able to take in a whole scene, to being able to focus completely on one object. Though she may not have meant it, her stroke did not hurt her art, it merely just altered it. Art is something a patient can improve on after an event like a stroke, creating a great outlet and therapy at the same time.