Brain Fitness Stories: Don Roberts

An Artist's Story

Don is an artist. He studied in Canada and privately in Europe, and graduated from college with a degree in Visual Arts. He has been a professional art instructor and has shown his work in the US, Canada and Europe. His work can be found in several private and public collections. Art is his passion, his essence.

With age can come a decline in memory and with the advent of retirement, Don became concerned about this, and especially how it might affect his love of painting. As time passed, he began to feel that his creativity was stalling.

“My artwork was no longer the source of pleasure and fulfillment that it had once been,” he remembers. “I didn’t feel as motivated, as focused. At the same time, my work had become technically and academically oriented. My creativity was no longer spontaneous, and it was not as exciting to be a painter.”

Don turned to self-help books. “I wanted to revive my creativity and memory,” he says, “but nothing helped.”

Enter the Brain Fitness Program
Don had reached this impasse when he first learned about the Posit Science Brain Fitness Program™. His first response was skepticism. “It didn’t even occur to me that the program would improve my creativity, and I wasn’t at all sure it would improve my memory,” he says. “But the long list of PhDs and MDs from the University of California San Francisco, and the neuroscientists at several other world famous universities, who are involved with Posit Science convinced me to give it a try.” And try he did.

The Artist Re-Emerges
Completing the Brain Fitness Program made a dramatic change in Don’s life—but not quite in the way he had anticipated. Although he noticed an improvement in memory and focus as expected, the program also brought back the creative spark that had been sorely missing from Don’s life.

One night Don was at home, listening to the radio. Suddenly he was inspired to walk over to his easel, place a fresh canvas on it, get his vast array of paints and brushes out of the closet and begin to paint. As the spirit overtook him, he worked straight through the night. “When it got near morning,” Don recalls, “I realized that the painting taking shape before me was unlike any work I had ever created. Its composition was fresh and exciting. My creative spirit had been revived!” Self-fulfillment and joy had returned to this visual artist. It was a new dawn.

Since completing the program, Don has created 22 new paintings (and counting). “There has been a complete aesthetic revolution to my painting and drawing.” Don observes. “My work is much more creative and professional than it had previously been.” An art critic even commented about the positive change in composition and style.

As his confidence in his painting abilities was restored, so was his personal self-esteem. “The Brain Fitness Program gave me a greater sense of self-awareness and self-assurance. I had felt as though I had been losing both. I also have a new sense of accomplishment.”