Arts in Healthcare- why I love my job!

Would you like to see a preview of the new promotional video for Arts in Healthcare? I was so excited to finally see it yesterday! It's not a public link yet (but I got the official okay to share it) so I can't show you a pretty preview version of the page- only the clickable address below that will take you to YouTube.  It's going to be presented next week at the International Conference of the Society for the Arts in Healthcare in Detroit by the founder and director of our program. It shows everything I love about my job at Roswell Park Cancer Institute!


 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aVCXVvX1l4

Ann-1, Technology-0

I finally hacked back into my own blog after locking myself out for way too long! I am being dramatic, it's true but even still and all, this is a victory! Technology is in the infuriating habit of kicking my butt on a regular basis, so even a small victory I will take. Ann-1, Technology-0. Ha!

So hello again, Art Works Studio Blog. Nice to see ya. A lot has changed since last we met. It's an interesting time to update an outdated blog. I am still working at Roswell as an artist-in-residence. I am still painting and showing work around Buffalo. And now I am teaching at the Aurora Waldorf High School. This is Year Two. I seem to have a knack for finding opportunites to jump into new new new ventures- like being the exhibits coordinator at Explore & More Children's Museum when they had not had one before or being one of the first, experimental artists- in-residence for Arts in Healthcare 3 years ago. Now the pioneering effort is this long- awaited Waldorf High School. It's been a teaching dream of mine for so long and I feel really lucky to get to be part of this new exciting school.

Another new thing is that this very month I will be moving my studio from its Main Street location, back into my home. I'm excited about this. As much as I have loved the studio space I've had at Red Brick, it will be nice to have life be one piece simpler right now. I'm plotting and scheming even as I type here over what will go where and how the move will work. There is a blobby, just barely conceived, unfinished painting anxiously awaiting the end of this move and I am really looking forward to laying it out and taking it further in my new set-up.

Now that I have dusted off this blog (take THAT, technology!) I can get on with my day, all puffed up and proud that after ages of blog lock-out angst, I am finally back in. Never mind that I cannot figure out how to make it make proper paragraphs. I'll just pretend I want it that way for now.

Oh, the painting on this page: "The Bad Girl's Dream" watercolor on clayboard panel 24"x36" begging to be framed.

Hospital Art: Color Play

Hospital Art: Color Play

I'm excited to show you some photos of the recent art project we did at Roswell. I am an artist-in-residence (one among six) at Roswell Park Cancer Institute through the Arts in Healthcare Initiative run by the Center for the Arts at UB.

What you see in these photos is a group art piece recently hung in the Same Day Surgery wing at RPCI. Over the past few months we have been inviting patients, their loved ones, and staff at the hospital to play with color. They've been painting square clay board panels with watercolor paint, focusing on blending and color mood. We worked in patient rooms, waiting rooms, hallways, staff break areas, and the infusion clinic. The Arts in Healthcare team also contributed panels. Pragna Wood and I oversaw the project, with help from so many people at Roswell and in the Arts in Healthcare program.

The most challenging part of the whole process was composing with all the squares. It was like one of those puzzles we used to play with on long car trips, where you push little squares around to make a picture of a kitty cat or a clown or something. The only difference is that this puzzle had an infinite number of possible solutions. It could have been arranged a million different ways! As we arranged and rearranged, we juggled our surprisingly strong emotional attachments to each square: each artist we remembered- each worried family member, or delighted nurse, or beloved colleague, or brave patient. It made the artistic process of arrangement incredibly poignant!

So this is the big installation. Waiting to be hung yet is a smaller grouping to go across from the nurses' station. Still in the works is a grouping painted by the nurses on this unit, to be hung behind their nurses' station.

Ready...aim...shoot.

Here is another version of the too-red painting. This one may be more true but even still, it leans toward red. It's tricky work, isn't it, shooting art?

5/31/09

5/31/09

I spent much of yesterday working in the studio and it was a good day. Some days, I go in and I putter-wash dishes, eat peanuts, and watch the construction out on Main Street- anything, anything but work. Why does that happen? It's not like I don't want to be there!

Yesterday wasn't like that. I had a lively student in the morning (which is always great fun) and worked steadily the rest of the time there. Had a nice break when Kelly (owns Arriba, the Mexican Restaurant downstairs) coaxed me out on the patio with a new menu item he's trying out- a breakfast-y, brunch-y Mexican concoction I would highly recommend you try when he puts it on the menu in a couple weeks.

I poked at a painting in progress. It's been on the easel for almost 2 months now (which is long for me!). Some days I just look at it. Others, I scrub something out or veil something in. It's vigorous and chunky- I may need to calm it down some, I don't know. Kristen liked the colors very much when she visited a while ago, so did Barbara. This gives me hope : )

I'm posting some newer art today- Portfolio 4 on the website (www.annfrankart.com). The black and white piece is older. It's been on the wall in the studio for a while, left over from some exercise I was having a student do. I kept playing around with this one after the student had finished hers. I'm putting it up for fun. I'm not really expecting anyone to want to buy it (although, if you love it, by all means!). It's mostly for my own amusement. I'm also amazed by what looks like a very red painting once the photo was posted in P. 4. It's really more subdued than it looks- more of a flower mood. I will try to reshoot that later this week, see if I can't get a truer color match.

Check out the new page on the website for student artwork. It's a collection of art from the women in the class at Horizon Village. Their work is really lovely- I hope you enjoy it.

If you are coming to visit me at the studio, call first. The construction on Main Street does keep life interesting and if I know you are coming, I can guide you in your parking options. Never ever a dull moment!