Drawing on the Past

West Linn High School National Art Society members use art to honor the lives of local senior citizens through personalized individual portraits

By Kara Hansen

The West Linn Tidings, Feb 26, 2009, Updated Oct 30, 2009

ADVERTISEMENTS

<< Prev. Page 1 | 2

Looking at a photo of her subject, a woman with a blunt-cut, modern blonde bob, 18-year-old Erin Axelrod agreed.

“She did a lot more than I expected,” Axelrod said, noting the woman she spoke with looked back fondly on growing up in a rural area before leaving to attend art school. “She became a commercial artist.”

Art teacher Lynn Pass said she frequently incorporates service with senior citizens into students’ work, capitalizing on the rich lessons they can teach young people.

Her own mother lives in a different state, so she always appreciates hearing that the 88-year-old is participating in social activities.

But Pass also likes “learning about other people, making connections, learning how things were.”

“They have a lot to offer us and we have a lot to offer them,” Pass said. “Even though the world is different, and technology is different, people are still the same … They were our age once.”

Aside from hearing stories about other people’s lives, the students appreciated working on projects with fewer constraints.

Their afterschool activities aren’t graded, and they could spend as much time as they wanted on the portraits.

“You can do something you like to do while using it to help other people,” said Haley McLeod, 17.

Still, the work wasn’t without challenges.

The big question looming over the teenagers as they worked was whether their subjects would feel they were true to their photos.

“You don’t want them to say, ‘That doesn’t look like me,’” Rachel Pricer, 18, said. “I’m just trying to do it exactly like the photo.”

But she had a feeling the gesture would be well-received regardless.

“I think they’ll really appreciate it,” Pricer said. “I know from my grandmother … it seems that the older you get, sometimes it’s like the less young people pay attention to you. It’s nice for them to know we’re young, and we’re often really busy, but we’ll still take the time to do something nice for them.”

Tanner Spring resident Mildred Alvarez could relate to that sentiment. She recently moved in after living in a similar facility in Los Angeles, where “they didn’t have anything like this,” she said.

“They didn’t have time for us there,” Alvarez said. “This meant so much to me. (The students) did a wonderful job.”

<< Prev. Page 1 | 2