WUNRN
ART & STORY - CARE GIVING - BY RITA LOYD
“Care Giving” by Rita Loyd © 2011
Artist
& Writer Rita Loyd's Story - This painting is of me and my mother
sitting on her couch with my arms around her. My mother has moderate
dementia/Alzheimer’s disease.
This couch
is my mom’s favorite spot to sit in her den. In the painting both my mother and
I have hearts painted on our chests to symbolize our love for each other. My
mother and I have protective energy fields around ourselves yet are separate
from the other. I painted the energy fields to symbolize protection from some
of the negative energies that can affect a care giver. Below my feet are
roots from the earth grounding me when I feel overwhelmed by the situation.
Funneling into my head is the universal energy of healing, love and infinite
possibilities. My mother’s body from the knees down is in spirit-form
symbolizing that she is also a spirit, and she will one day return to heaven as
her spirit self.
On the other
end of the couch is my grandmother (who has passed away). She is the mother of
my mother and she is leaning over to give healing energy to her. I put her in
the painting because I pray to my grandmother and ask her to help my mom
through her illness and to comfort her. My mother’s spirit partly hovers around
my grandmother’s belly and breast to symbolize my mother’s place of
earthly origin and to suggest that, at times, my mother’s state of mind is of a
small child. Also the ethereal lines painted to represent my mother’s spirit
touch my grandmother and give a subtle hint that the figure of my
grandmother is in spirit form rather than human form.
This
painting is of my mother and me but it also symbolizes all care-givers, all
family members and all families caring for a person with dementia or
Alzheimer’s.