The Elegance-of-Childish Innocence in Donald Zolan Paintings

This study within the Paintings of Donald Zolan is devoted to a Child Who Is Every Child in Pain in the World, every Child in Pain and Suffering. Thinking of the Little Patient’s Thought means participating him fully and wholly. Entering the Child’s world, what a delicate and private responsibility in this action which speaks the language of emotion, perception, sensation. Such a delicate and private space belongs only to the Child. But he lets us enter his world when he feels understood, cradled and loved.

What does the Child think? How does the Child think? How can we think of the Child’s thought? The Child receives and perceives, and it’s just within the measure of receiving and perceiving that his thought is being built. The high level of observation gives the possibility to enter the Child’s private world respecting his silences, adhering his gestures, interpreting his signs, in order to There-be within his There-Being.

The Child in his Pain and Suffering asks for an urgent In-Presence, which is the heart of the Child’s heart. The Child sees-and-feels, receives-and-perceives the environment built just at his measure, an environment which surrounds him, an environment within which he is enclosed with his Pain. ‘Within pain and fear the relationship with the world is interrupted and I am alone, I am enclosed within my Self’ (Gernot Böhme, Philosopher, 2001). How is it possible to enter the Little Patient’s space and time? Such a delicate space and time? Space and time which urgently need fullness, stillness, clearness, consciousness. And, the Child perceives all the essence of this dimension. Positively and fully. How, is it possible to create this environment for the Little Patient? Our behaviour is Everything for the Little Child in Pain. It’s Everything, Everywhere and Everyhow. Little Patients’ Silences are thin and clear signs, visible signs, signs which ask for being interpreted urgently. The Child observes, looks around him, and looks within his Self. He wonders. He needs answers to his voiceless questions. We have to listen to his silent questions and give them voice and light. The Child in his reflections, thoughts and considerations says Everything. Where do his eyes look at? Which gestures and signs express his self? Which thoughts are born in his mind?

Which emotions? Which sensations? Which perceptions? And, his suffering growing up inside him? And, his pain which is only his? His pain which cannot be expressed in words, because he is a Preverbal Child?

The Children painted by Donald Zolan are the Children of the World. Children painted within their thoughts, within their signs, gestures, contexts and atmospheres, within their feelings, sensations, emotions, perceptions, within their moments and movements, within their times and spaces. Children who are thoughts to be listened to in their depth-of-depth-of-depth. It’s owing to a great and excellent observation of the Child living his daily life that Donald Zolan drew the essence of a Childthinking, a Childsigning, a Childconsidering, a Childfeeling, a Childreflecting, a Childgesturing, a Childmoving, a Childacting, millisecondly (Paul Holinger, 2013).

The Children Zolan painted, disclosing their Inscape, are the thoughts, feelings, reflections, considerations, signs, gestures, movings belonging to those Little Children who live special spaces and times by Pediatric Hospitals in the World. Interpreting Zolan’s Paintings, in every detail, with precision, attention and participation, at the bedside of the Little Patient, means entering the Child’s delicate and private world, living-and-loving it with him.

Professor Luisella Magnani

Professor of Linguistics and Aesthetics, University Institute in Sciences of Linguistic Mediation, Varese; Catholic University Of Sacred Heart of Milan and Brescia; Individual Member of the International Infant Sign Researchers, Michigan State University, Member of the European Association for Palliative Care and Member of the International Children’s Palliative Care Network. Affiliation with the Department of Clinic and Experimental Medicine – University of Studies of Insubria, Pediatric Clinic, Varese. Present position: teaching the Health Care Professionals the power of word, sign and gesture, the power of Action-of-Behaviouring for-and-before the PreverbalOncologicChildren in Pain, in order that the Action of Clinical Care becomes the active and protective participation in the PreverbalOncologicChildren and in All the Children in Pain in the World.

It’s within the field of Aesthetics that the intensive and deep study of Donald Zolan’s Paintings finds its origin, on the background of Martin Heidegger’s and Hans-Georg Gadamer’s theories of Interpretation. The Interpretation of Zolan’s Paintings becomes action created for Children in Pain, and that is the creation of atmospheres (Gernot Böhme, 2001) built owing to the power of word within and beyond the shapes and shades in Zolan’s Paintings.

Other Memberships include:
International Infant Sign Researchers
European Association for Palliative Care
International Children's Palliative Care Network
Multinational Association of Supportive Care in Cancer
American Society of Clinical Oncology
American Delirium Association


For further information or questions about the program, please contact Professor Luisella Magnani at info@luisellamagnani.it or visit her website at www.luisellamagnani.it.

For questions on the art, please contact Jennifer Zolan at info@zolanagency.com.