Donald Zolan
PEDIATRICS CANCER PROJECT
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  • What a beautiful legacy that the art of Donald Zolan can transmit a feeling of love, positivity, and a sense of well being to a preverbal oncologic child in pain and their families.

    Giving hope to life is the highest sense of purpose we can achieve through the gifts of art and creativity.

    Jennifer Zolan

  • “The importance of the Donald Zolan paintings is that his Children become Little Sweet Friends for Children in Pain, and they succeed in feeling, tasting, hearing, smelling, seeing, touching the Beauty of  those paintings. These paintings are windows opened to Children's hearts and minds. Donald painted not only Children but Children's thoughts-and-feelings, perception and-sensations.”

    Professor Luisella Magnani

  • What a beautiful legacy that the art of Donald Zolan can transmit a feeling of love, positivity, and a sense of well being to a preverbal oncologic child in pain and their families.

    Giving hope to life is the highest sense of purpose we can achieve through the gifts of art and creativity.

    Jennifer Zolan

  • “The importance of the Donald Zolan paintings is that his Children become Little Sweet Friends for Children in Pain, and they succeed in feeling, tasting, hearing, smelling, seeing, touching the Beauty of  those paintings. These paintings are windows opened to Children's hearts and minds. Donald painted not only Children but Children's thoughts-and-feelings, perceptionand-sensations.”

    Professor Luisella Magnani


This page is dedicated to All Preverbal Oncologic children suffering with pain and delirium in the hopes of understanding and finding a way to lessen the pain of every child in the world with cancer who are unable to communicate at this early age their pain, their feelings, their sensations, and their fears.

Professor Luisella Magnani of Varese, Italy began her research and studies in Pediatrics Palliative Care upon the passing of her nephew Giampaolo, a Preverbal Leukemic Child.
In His Memory, Professor Magnani wants to be and do all her best for Every Child in Pain and in the World.

She has dedicated her life her research to help children and their families in the field of Non-Pharmacological care. In August 2012, Dr. Magnani discovered the artwork of Donald Zolan and saw the vision of how Zolan’s art of childhood could be used in Psicosocial Therapy in pediatrics cancer of preverbal children. When Dr. Magnani approached Jennifer Zolan it was at the same time that Jennifer was searching for a children’s cause to continue Donald’s vision of helping children through art.

In his memory, Jennifer is committed and dedicated to helping these innocent children of cancer and their families.

Read more >       



In her studies presented to the World Conference of Children’s Palliative Care in Mumbai, India, in February 2014, Dr. Magnani shared her findings of what a Preverbal Oncologic Child Perceives and Feels and how in one way a Donald Zolan painting provides a warm positive joyful atmosphere to the Oncologic Child in Pain.
Dr. Magnani writes,
“these paintings open a window to a little child’s soul and fill him with light and positive well being. For each child is closed within his pain and how does one enter into his Inner Nature, his Inner World.”

In the years ahead, Jennifer Zolan plans to create children’s videos, books and prints to fill the room of each preverbal oncologic child with the magical paintings of America’s Beloved Children’s Artist, Donald Zolan.

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.



Drawing the Children’s Life from each of Zolan’s Paintings, giving it to Every Preverbal Oncologic Child in Pain, building a new Inscape within him, that is the mission of this study.

Professor Luisella Magnani

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.



I take the liberty of speaking and writing about the Donald Zolan Painting-Videos which are helping many and many Oncologic Preverbal Children Who looking at those videos live moments of calmness, gentleness, graceness.
They live the concreteness of life because within these Paintings they meet lovely friends, they meet Children Who Are pure and kind like Them. In my studies, these Paintings enter the Dimension of Distraction in the wide field of the Non-Pharmacological Care.
The greatness of pain and fear fades and wastes those Preverbal Children's Thoughts, Emotions, Sensations, Perceptions, Feelings.
The In-Presence of Zolan's Paintings create Their Inner Space newly, create Their Own delicate Perceptions, because for Them Zolan's Painting-Videos become Their Atmosphere.

Professor Luisella Magnani

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.



CONTACT US

Scottsdale, Arizona
Bologna (Italy)


203.300.3290 (USA)

+39 366 2317118 (Italy)

info@zolanagency.com

jenniferzolan


Please contact
the Zolan Company to:

  • Request PDF files of the complete artworks of the Collections
  • Discuss Licensing Opportunities
  • Obtain permission to license a Zolan Company copyrighted image for manufacturing or for personal usage
  • Inquire about licensing an image for advertising, for community projects, or for social causes



Doctor Professor
Luisella Magnani


info@luisellamagnani.it

www.luisellamagnani.it



LATEST NEWS
Donald Zolan’s Paintings as Atmospheral Care in the Painful Procedure Room Of the Paediatric Clinic
University of Studies of Insubria of Varese – Italy
Luisella Magnani


A space can become Atmospheral space when it is cared thinking of he who has to enter it, the Child and his mother enter the Painful Procedure Room...
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World Paediatric Hospice and Paediatric Palliative Care Day
Friday, 2nd October 2015

Let's look at children's eyes, children in urgent need, children in pain and in suffering. Let's look at their eyes, let's interpret the feeling of meaning in their eyes...
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Professor Magnani presented her abstract to the Congress of the European Delirium Association in Cremona, Italy November 6, 2014.
What and How does the Preverbal Oncologic Child Perceive, When he perceives?
Prepared for the First International Children’s Palliative Care Conference, Mumbai, India 2014

Consider the atmosphere within which the Preverbal Oncologic Child has been living since the diagnosis day...
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‘Here-am-I, Here-are-we’ by Professor Luisella Magnani
Prepared for the World Hospice & Palliative Care Day, October 2014

The hat on Children’s head, that hat whose size is larger than the Children’s headsize, is the symbol of protection, covering, embracing, comfort, the symbol of ‘universal coverage of palliative care’. And interpreting Zolan’s Painting we can say that EveryChild ...
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