At many times during the first 81 years of her life, Frieda Mogerman looked at art and read about art — but she never really created art.
Now, at age 82, the artist within her has been born.
Thanks to art classes offered by the Esther and Jacques Reutlinger Community for Jewish Living in Danville, Mogerman and about 40 other elderly residents have stumbled onto a special gift.
They are using their minds and souls and hands as never before.
They are creating works of art.
“My husband always thought art was frivolous…you could do it, but it wouldn’t result in anything of use,” said Mogerman, a widow who lives in Reutlinger’s assisted-living area.
But over the past year and a half, she has come to see creating art as “a deeply spiritual experience that nourishes and restores the soul.”
Betty Rothaus, the 53-year-old director of the Discovering the Artist Within program for the past 10 years, couldn’t agree more.
“It’s extremely healing,” she said. “Once the seniors get the materials into their hands, and they begin to find a way to express their ideas, their trust in the process begins to build and the old beliefs — that they’re not creative or talented enough — begin to melt away.”
Rothaus, an accomplished artist herself, is the kind of person who would be overjoyed if the residents were simply taking her classes once or twice a week and making junky pieces of art.
What adds to her heartwarming satisfaction is that the participants, whether in their 70s, 80s or 90s — the oldest is 99 — are churning out surprisingly high-quality paintings, sketches, collages and tapestries.
Much of the work hangs throughout the Reutlinger complex, brightening up the halls with “magnificent things,” said Debbie Shelton, the center’s director of nursing. “They take great pride in it,” she added.
And starting later this month, there is going to be an art show featuring works by 30 Reutlinger residents at the Contra Costa County Jewish Community Center in Walnut Creek.
On top of that, some Reutlinger artists are rising to even greater heights.
Mogerman, for example, had one of her pieces chosen for an upcoming juried show in Chicago this winter. The exhibit is sponsored by Little Brothers of the Elderly, an organization that promotes relationships between seniors and young people.
Titled “Royal Rags,” Mogerman’s piece is a pair of blue jeans from the 1960s festooned with objects of the period, such as “Make Love Not War” slogans, pins, flowers and souvenirs.
“I started with some old hippie pants,” said Mogerman, a former social worker who used to live in Berkeley, “and it turned into kind a statement on that era.”
Mogerman’s specialty is collage, but other artists are tackling other mediums.
Batya Kalis uses watercolors. One of her paintings, a seascape, will be showing at the de Young Museum in San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park from Sept. 27 through Oct. 7.
Fellow Reutlinger residents Bess Meek and Sol Saperstein will also have paintings in the 10th annual Art With Elders show, a program featuring works by residents of Bay Area nursing homes.
Kalis, a former psychiatrist who asked that her age not appear in the newspaper, said the 16-year-old Reutlinger art program has opened up a whole new world for her.
“The facilities and the materials are just wonderful, but what is most wonderful is the support, encouragement and talent of our teacher, Betty,” said Kalis, an assisted-living resident. “She is a rare person with a lot of training and experience, and she brings out the best in her students.”
Rothaus is also a salesperson. She has appealed to many of Reutlinger’s 145 residents to attend one or more of her four classes per week. If someone is interested, she will work with that person one-on-one, assessing their talent level and potential physical limitations. Less-mobile seniors often work in their rooms.
“It’s like entering into a process together,” said Rothaus, who worked at a printmaking studio in Paris for three years and now dabbles in sculpture and pastel portraits. She also has a master’s degree in art.
“I’m asking questions that begin to uncover what’s important to a person and what materials they feel drawn to. There is so much richness of learning in a lifetime. The question is: How do you tap into it, harvest it and bring it into form?”
Some of the residents delve into Jewish-themed art. One 95-year-old woman, now deceased, developed Hebrew letters into trees, flowers and other symbols.
Another person currently is making a model of the sephirot to hang on his wall for meditation purposes. Sephirot is the kabbalistic term for the 10 emanations through which God is manifested.
Other residents have made challah covers, and a tallit-making workshop is in the offing. But most express themselves artistically in things non-Jewish.
Harry Neuman, an 87-year-old widower who was married to a commercial textile artist for 51 years, said his wife “would have been surprised” with some of his drawings.
“I’ve even surprised myself,” said the former book publisher, who lives in the skilled-nursing section. “I’m rather an amateur, but I’ve done some good ones.”
Perhaps the most surprised are the relatives of the residents, who can’t believe that their parent or grandparent is such an accomplished artist. Some relatives make quite a fuss, in fact.
Ever humble, Mogerman labeled her family’s reaction “overblown,” adding, “I think they tend to make more of it than it is. I can’t really include myself in the category of artist.”
Kalis expressed similar sentiments. Asked how it felt to have one of her pieces showing in the esteemed de Young Museum, she said, “I think it’s hilarious,” and then chuckled.
“I mean, I like that I did it, and I like the notion of it hanging in the museum for even a day.
“But I keep saying to Betty I’m not Grandma Moses by any means.”