The Power of Art for Health

My 80-year-old mother makes cloth angels. She doesn’t like them to be called dolls, because to her a “doll” is a toy, and these are most definitely not. They’re absolutely incredible, handcrafted, collectible works of art.

She makes about one a day, on average. She doesn’t have much else to do; she lives alone in the middle of nowhere, which is not the best situation, and which we’re working on. She doesn’t have email, doesn’t like television, doesn’t feel up to walking or getting out much.

So she makes angels.

I was up there last week. I had been concerned about reports that she seemed depressed, so I was surprised, pleasantly so, to find her sitting at the table, making angels, looking as happy as I’ve seen her in years.

She enjoys making angels. She feels productive. At 80, she can’t do much, but she can make these exquisite sculptures.

She gives them away, or she did until a week ago. Just gives them to people she thinks need an angel. The fabric ladies at Wal-Mart. Her driver to her doctor’s appointments. Patients at the physical therapy center. Senior citizens at the senior center in town.

She doesn’t have a real objection to selling them; she would if she felt she could. But she’s not good at selling.

And it’s making the angels that makes her happy.

I offered to try to sell the angels. She was very thrilled, because “If I get $1 apiece for 20 angels, I can make 20 more angels!” Since they’re mostly made from donated and saved materials (one is from my prom dress), that’s true.

Of course, I’m not going to sell them for $1; I’d give them to nursing homes first.

And that would make her happy.

Because it’s the making of the art that keeps her healthy and happy, not the selling of it.