{"id":270485,"date":"2026-05-14T05:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270485\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T05:24:10","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T05:24:10","slug":"birds-brushes-and-belonging-florida-weekly","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/270485\/","title":{"rendered":"Birds, brushes and belonging – Florida Weekly"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Marie \u201cScappy\u201d Scaperrotta shows DeDe Blodnick, director of celebrations at Discovery Commons, the panel that she painted. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

The seniors hunch over the art table, dabbing vibrant colors of paint onto a canvas with a sponge. Each resident of the assisted living facility or memory care home created a unique panel of a bird sitting on a branch. But this wasn\u2019t an individual piece of work. After three months of working on their separate masterpieces, the canvases were put together to showcase collaborative artwork.\n<\/p>\n

Minna Maillakakis teaches art at eight assisted living and memory care places in Fort Myers. While she has done lots of individual lessons in the past, this year she decided to do something different.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI like doing the collaborative effort because even though it looks the same, every piece is unique,\u201d Maillakakis began.\n<\/p>\n

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Artist Minna Maillakakis reveals the collaborative work at Discovery Commons in Fort Myers. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

Maillakakis got the idea when she saw a simple drawing on the internet of birds on branches.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought, \u2018I can do something with that\u2019,\u201d she explained.\n<\/p>\n

So, she sketched out about 80 canvases alternating between warm color backgrounds and cold color birds and cold color backgrounds with warm color birds. Then she began by teaching a lesson on warm and cold colors.\n<\/p>\n

To help the residents be successful in their work, Maillakakis outlined the birds and branches. Then she taped off her outlines and had the budding artists sponge paint the background. Later, she taped off the background so they could sponge paint the birds and branches.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some residents who are vision impaired. We have some that have arthritis and can\u2019t hold the paintbrush, so the sponge painting worked for everyone,\u201d she explained.\n<\/p>\n

After three months of painting, Maillakakis put the panels together to create the artwork that is now hanging on the walls in the lobbies or recreation rooms of these senior homes.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it is wonderful,\u201d said DeDe Blodnick, director of celebrations at Discovery Commons in Fort Myers. \u201cWe believe in art. We believe in keeping people engaged. It is all the principles of keeping people healthy. When you are doing art, it helps you physically. The hand and eye motion helps your brain. It slows down dementia. Art is very good at stimulating the brain. This is exciting. Look at it. It is beautiful.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

Blodnick was especially excited that both residents in Discovery Commons assisted living and memory care could do the project.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cArt is so important,\u201d Maillakakis continued. \u201cArt classes in senior care facilities help mental, emotional and social activities. It supports cognitive function and helps reduce loneliness. It helps encourage self-expression. Arts programs improve social health and engagement among older adults.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tResidents of Discovery Commons sponge paint birds as part of a collaborative painting project at assisted living and memory care places in Fort Myers. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tResidents of Discovery Commons sponge paint birds as part of a collaborative painting project at assisted living and memory care places in Fort Myers. -COURTESY PHOTO
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When Maillakakis recently uncovered the final collaborative work at Discovery Commons during a great reveal, the residents were excited to see their work put together. They proudly pointed to the panel they created.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was great entertainment,\u201d said Owen Medlock as he pointed to a brown bird on a bright blue background. \u201cI really enjoyed it. I am kind of artsy. It is a way of expressing yourself. It is something you can share with people.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just shocked at how nice it came out,\u201d added Marie \u201cScappy\u201d Scaperrotta, who also painted a brown bird on a bright blue background. \u201cI think it is beautiful. To think I can\u2019t color, I can\u2019t paint, I can\u2019t draw, but I did this, and they all are beautiful, every single one of those beautiful birds. It was a joy to come and do this and to give us something for an hour to get our minds thinking. It is very pretty. It is made out of love.\u201d<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tPeg Christian points to the panel that she created. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n

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\t\t\t\tOwen Medlock points to the panel that he painted. -COURTESY PHOTO
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Maillakakis, who is an artist and former school art teacher, did the same project at Amavida, Canterfield, Healthpark Senior Living memory care, Heights Center senior program, The Opal at Lakes Park and Shell Point Retirement Community.\n<\/p>\n

She said the collaborative project was so successful that she plans to offer it as a special package to other facilities even if they don\u2019t hire her as their art teacher. She also wants to bring the idea to local communities, businesses and organizations. Maillakakis, who is the owner of icanecreateart, said the subject doesn\u2019t have to be birds, it can be anything customers want.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cI love what I do,\u201d Maillakakis concluded.\n<\/p>\n

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Residents at Discovery Commons in Fort Myers each painted a panel and then it was put together to create a collaborate piece of artwork they are calling \u201cBranching Out.\u201d The full piece is being hung in the assisted living facility. -COURTESY PHOTO<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Marie \u201cScappy\u201d Scaperrotta shows DeDe Blodnick, director of celebrations at Discovery Commons, the panel that she painted. -COURTESY…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":270486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[209,211,210],"class_list":["post-270485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral","tag-cape-coral-headlines","tag-cape-coral-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=270485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/270485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/270486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=270485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=270485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=270485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}