By Pamela Margoshes
Despite a severe intestinal disorder, painter Henri Matisse created some of his greatest work near the end of his life. So did Auguste Renoir, Claude Monet and Pablo Picasso. And some creative people, like Grandma Moses, don't start their creative careers until they're past 70.

Psychologists have been studying the creative lives of older people and how creativity can enhance the aging process. In a range of studies, they've found that being creative can add richness to the aging process; that those who followed their creative passions are happier old people; and that many creative people develop new creative styles in old age.

For the past 20 years, Dean Keith Simonton, PhD, professor of psychology at the University of California-Davis, has studied the career trajectories of composers, writers and artists.

Simonton has found, in part, that creativity does not decline with age, though it may change in form.

'Swan-song' creativity

Composer Igor Stravinsky, for example, began in later life to compose pieces much differently than he had earlier, changing from writing traditional polytonal music to more radical 'twelve-tone' music that uses the musical scale in a different way.

Relatedly, Simonton has found a 'swan-song' phenomenon: a time in which people's work becomes more meaningful and aesthetically concise as they face death.

Different kinds of artists have different creative peaks, Simonton added: For instance, lyric poets may peak earlier than novelists. In addition, some people-like Grandma Moses-begin creative careers later in life, thus peaking late in life, he noted.

A recent study at University of Nebraska-Lincoln found that thinking and acting creatively can help people adapt to the aging process and find meaning in life. Participants in the study-who were a mix of nonartists and artists ages 60 and older-said that being creative enhanced their life satisfaction. In addition, creativity can encourage greater cognitive flexibility, the study found.

Sixty percent of the study participants said they'd become even more creative as they've gotten older. Of the remaining 40 percent, half said they'd remained consistently creative throughout their lives.

Follow your passion

In 1991, Dudek followed up a University of California-Berkeley study by Donald Mackinnon, PhD, and colleagues of 124 male architects, engineers and artists between 1958 and 1960. Participants in 1958 were 53-years-old on average.

Dudek interviewed 70 of the original architects in the study, all of those who were still alive in 1991. She divided the architects into three groups: famous; very successful; and 'nice guys,' men who had never strived to be famous, but who had fulfilling careers. All the men in the studies had followed their creative passions in their careers, Dudek said. With few exceptions, they reported that they were happy with their lives and wouldn't do things differently, and that creativity had enhanced their lives and made their old age more successful and enjoyable.

If people exercise creativity throughout their lives, their old age should be no different, Simonton said. 'People with lots of creative potential keep on creating even in old age,' he said.