Tales of the Farblunget: Farblunget (farb-LAWN-jet) is a Yiddish word that "describes the state of aimless wandering, or being hopelessly lost and unsure where to turn next." My husband had Alzheimer's disease. I made this series of paintings before he died. The "conversations" that my lost and confused husband and I had while he was still living at home were not only excruciatingly repetitive, but they were also often absurd, strange, surreal, and sometimes, especially in retrospect, hilarious: Farblunget.

Each painting is a tiny story about living with him as his disease slowly progressed, and he became more and more disoriented and disconnected from reality. The titles are direct quotes. Picture us eating dinner at our kitchen table, while he told me,"I used to live here." Or asking me later, when I visited him in memory care: "How did you find me, wherever it is that I am?"

Barbara Gordon

Barbara Gordon