In January 2012, through the generous support of Shands Arts in Healthcare for Rural Communities program, we launched the Senior Stories Multimedia Project at Eden Springs Nursing Home in Wakulla County.

Our family had already become close with two residents at the nursing home who we've been visiting for the past couple of years. We decided to begin with our friend, Carl, who was most anxious to collaborate on his life-review portrait. Over a 3 day period we recorded his interview, took photos and made notes. I also completed several sketches and two color studies.

Once these resources were in hand and his interview was edited and transcribed, we sat down with Carl and helped him compose the visual centerpiece for his project: the oil portrait. Themes began to emerge during this discussion and soon detailed sketches for the painting's central image, timeline and narrative frame elements were complete.   

For the past 3 weeks I've been working on the painting mostly at home but I continue to bring the canvas in for Carl to review and critique. (During the canvas-drawing phase  I  was still incorporating Carl's recommended changes.)

I expect Carl's painting will be complete by mid-May then my son and I will begin to create the animated sequences that will be based upon excerpts from Car's audio recorded interview. (This content will then be linked with the portrait to build the final, interactive Flash product.) While Rafel and I work on the animation, my wife, Samiri, and our daughters, Adriana and Erin, will interview two other Eden Springs residents who will be the subjects for the other two life-review portraits to be completed as part of this pilot project.

More background (images and info) is available here: http://demo.mortals.org. This site will be updated regularly.

Project Description
We are collaborating with senior citizens from our local nursing home to create multimedia, Web presentations in which the seniors share their personal histories, significant influences and lessons learned from life experience. These interactive “portraits” integrate the subjects' voice over with music and animation. Final products will include: 3 Flash presentations with animation and music, a dedicated Website, 3 portrait paintings, 3 high-resolution, matted prints of the paintings and multiple prints of the seniors' restored photos. Great care will be taken during the course of this project to develop engaging presentations that highlight the individuality of each subject and showcase each resident's unique approach to life's challenges.

-Paul Fortier