Pasadena Villa’s Residents Enjoy Social Integration Activities: Gustav Klimt

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Marnita Patton, MA, ATR, CCBT, CGT, CDP, Art Therapist at Pasadena Villa Orlando, recently led residents on an all-day art adventure involving creative crafts that highlighted the style of Gustav Klimt.  This all-day art event consisted of a film and some creative craft time. The outing began with the Woman In Gold movie.  Woman In Gold is the true story of a woman who overcame great odds. Sixty years after fleeing Vienna during World War II, an elderly Jewish woman named Maria Altmann (played by Helen Mirren), begins a journey to reclaim her family’s possessions seized by the Nazis. Among them is a portrait of her beloved Aunt Adele Bloch-Bauer. This famous painting by Gustav Klimt has become a national treasure.  After the flick, everyone enjoyed some lunch to discuss the movie and socialize on a few other art topics.

During Creative Crafts, residents reviewed what characteristics made the portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer unique and looked at several other paintings that Klimt had done in this style. In particular, we explored his Tree of Life painting.  Here Marnita demonstrated how easy it is to create beautiful curling, swirling branches and a ground baseline for the tree.  The sparkling paint pulled them in the style of easy line drawing.  Here nothing could be considered an error and had residents feeling comfortable to just explore the paint and have fun.

With Klimt’s style in mind, residents could choose from a variety of brown tones of paper to begin their painting.  Acrylic paints in several shades of gold, copper, and bronze were utilized.  After creating swirling branches with the metallic paints, residents were guided to add sections of white acrylic over the metallic. We explored shapes that Klimt would use in his work. The last step involved black acrylic paint accents. Once the painting was completely dry the trunk and branches could be outlined with a permanent black marker to create a three-dimensional effect from the background.  Some work was mounted on large black paper and several will be getting sleek black frames for hanging.  The final results of the residents’ artistic efforts proved to be fantastic!

The Villa Orlando and Pasadena Villa’s Smoky Mountain Lodge are adult intensive psychiatric residential treatment centers for clients with serious mental illnesses. Pasadena Villa’s outpatient center is located in Raleigh, North Carolina. As one of the very first programs in the country to base its treatment upon Social Integration, our mental health facilities offer help through a unique mix of individualized therapy and group residential programs with a clear focus towards achieving more independent living.

The Villa Orlando and Pasadena Villa’s Smoky Mountain Lodge are adult intensive psychiatric residential treatment centers for clients with serious mental illnesses. We also provide other individualized therapy programs, step-down residential programs, and less intensive mental health services, such as Community Residential Homes, Supportive Housing, Day Treatment Programs and Life Skills training. Pasadena Villa’s Outpatient Center in Raleigh, North Carolina offers partial hospitalization (PHP) and an intensive outpatient program (PHP). If you or someone you know may need mental health services, please complete our contact form or call us at 877-845-5235 for more information.

Sources:

• Klimt 
• Womaningoldmovie.com 
• Gustav-Klimt.com