About the Cover Artist

This month’s featured artist, Jean Sheekey, was born in Brooklyn, NY, the eldest of 4 siblings. Jean worked on Wall Street as a secretary for a brokerage firm for many years. She met her husband, George, at work and enjoyed a marriage of 58 years with 3 wonderful daughters. Following the death of her husband, Jean was diagnosed with vascular dementia in 2020.

Over the past few years, Jean has participated in a life enrichment program with Benevilla (benevilla.org) in Arizona. Benevilla is an award-winning organization dedicated to serving older adults, those with disabilities, and children and their families who care for them with a variety of programs and services. According to her daughter, Lisa, Jean enjoys participating in the many activities offered through this program, including working on various arts and craft projects, playing games, listening to music, interacting with others, and reminiscing. Being active in this program not only is enjoyable and lifts Jean’s spirits, it has helped slow the decline in cognition associated with Jean’s vascular dementia diagnosis according to her doctor’s assessment. 

Through Benevilla, Jean partnered with a student volunteer from Midwestern University in an intergenerational art-making program, Opening Minds through Art (OMA; scrippsoma.org). This program, which was developed at Scripps Gerontology Center, an Ohio Center of Excellence at Miami University, pairs a person living with dementia with a student who helps facilitate the development of artwork.  

Jean created the beautiful work, Ares, featured on this month’s issue of Practical Neurology along with other art as part of the OMA program. Each of her pieces of art is named after a grandchild. Jean is proud of being a grandmother of seven and great-grandmother of three. Seeing pictures of her artwork helps Jean recall the good times she had creating the piece and gives her a feeling of accomplishment.