Don Cooper | Care Giver

Don Cooper

Care Giver 

Digital Illustration 

Art is my way to internalize my relationship with patients I visit as a hospice volunteer. Each patient during my seven-plus years as a volunteer has both emotionally drained and emotionally strengthened me. The image I’ve submitted was created after many visits with R., and I realized the heavy burden his daughter was under in caring for him while she worried about her own heart issues that might make her unable to care for him. During a hospice memorial service, I had a hospital chaplain suggest I do art to externalize my experiences. I replied, “Definitely no.” Each illustration is my inner response to deeply moving experiences that are etched into my memory.