Legend Residents Recreate Masterpieces To Win A Contest And Break Up The Stay-At-Home Routine

June 30th, 2020 | Press Releases


Legend Senior Living® announced the winners of its Life Enrichment Classic Painting Contest, in which the residents use everyday items and stand in for the subjects of well-known masterpieces. The winning composition, a reproduction of “Lady Victoria Victorian Elegance” by contemporary artist Sue Halstenberg, was created by Laura Leehan, Life Enrichment Coordinator at Legend at Jefferson’s Garden, Edmond, OK. The contest was held among all Legend and Windsor residences as a Life Enrichment activity for residents who have been observing stay-at-home precautions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The concept of posing everyday people with everyday items to recreate the works of the master painters has been a popular activity among people who’ve been working at home or just staying in,” said Brenda Patton, Life Enrichment Coordinator at The Windsor of Palm Coast (FL), who first created resident masterpieces for social media. The Facebook post inspired the Legend team to develop a contest. “The residents loved the idea. And the results were just as amazing in their own way as the original works are.”

Creativity is one of Legend Senior Living’s Core Values, prized alongside others such as Integrity, Stewardship and Caring, and stated as: “A conscious effort and willingness to see things differently, to break out of habits and outdated thought to find new ways of thinking, doing, and being. Recognizing that improvement requires my flexibility and involves change from time to time.”

“Creativity drives our innovations in care for seniors,” said Patton, “and the residents are our creative collaborators. The virus may have kept us at home and separated from our loved ones, but creativity keeps us open to a whole world of experience as a community.”

The Classic Painting Contest demonstrates the inventiveness and never-ending search by Legend Life Enrichment Coordinators for new and more compelling, enlightening and socially engaging experiences. Those talents have been key to the mental health and morale of the residences during a challenging time. The creations were judged by an independent panel of judges made of art collectors, students and enthusiasts. In total, there were over 40 entries.

“This is a new one for us,” said Leehan, “It caught everyone’s imagination, residents and associates alike. It was one of the most successful diversions from nonstop coronavirus news we’ve had for the duration. And residence members could feel like they’ve been rewarded for their patience.”

The fad of recreating scenes from masterpieces of the ages using only the things you have in the house may have started with the Getty Museum in Los Angeles and a call-out on Twitter. “Having seniors as the subjects was our twist on it. And it yielded some stunners,” said Patton. If you’ve never seen Grant Wood’s “American Gothic” farmer holding a shuffleboard cue in place of a pitchfork or a real, live Picasso achieved with face paint, well, you need to. A video montage of the entries, including the 2nd Place winner, Rembrant’s “An Old Woman Reading”, submitted by Riley Paye, Life Enrichment Coordinator at Legend at Rivendell Memory Care (OK) and Legend of Lititz’s spitting-image third-place entry, Stephan Kuhn’s “Woman Reading a Book,” submitted by Jennifer Corrado, is below:

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“It’s really a picture of life at a Legend community,” said Patton. “The friendship between the people who work here and the people who live here, the spirit of community, and the unflagging sense of humor among the residents.”

Winning residents will receive their portrait on canvas, classically framed.