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In 2023 I was commissioned to create a design for a mural to be installed in a long corridor on the Woman’s Health Floor, of a new extension of Scripps Hospital in San Diego. The mural concept was to suggest a dreamy walk through the San Diego Botanic Gardens. Guided by a professional  design company specifications, I painted 14 sections, 20x40 “, in ¼ size that would be scanned to print a long mural for the corridor.

This was my first large scale public art project. I found out that several artists were commissioned to design murals for different floors.I consulted one of these generous colleagues, Ken Goldman for tips on how to present my ideas. 

In preparation I spent good time in the Botanic gardens sketching, painting and taking photographs.  I noted the gentle curving pathways and transitions to areas distinguishing plants from different parts of the world, for example indigenous Californian, English, African, Indian, Japanese plants and trees as well as some distinctive architectural features. The walk began and ended through a greenhouse.

I plotted my impressions in sketches of impressionistic  vignette or soft expressive abstraction.

I fused these images into a preparatory  panel: Sample D

Working on this large scale in my small studio required some  unusual problem solving. I worked on two panels and easels to plan the continuity.

Wanting to get a sense of the physical reality of what I was doing. I took the 14 pieces to a nearby vacant lot to see if side by side there was transition and flow  between each piece.

Here are the first and last pieces of the series.

Both feature the greenhouse and degrees of abstraction and softness in an impressionistic style.

Of course the professional design team were able to upload the images onto a long digital file to check progress, so that was really helpful. Actually it was thrilling to work with people with professional expertise. At all times they made me and other artists I believe, feel so welcome and encouraged to pursue unique responses to the challenge.

An important goal of the project they stated  was to "consider that we are inspiring patients, visitors and staff of all ages, genders and ethnicities. Inventive, uplifting, yet sensitive works are encouraged."

As I worked on the project I thought a lot the ways art has of affecting the emotions and particularly, on an anxious viewer. I am well aware that art arouses emotions, but I wondered if I might tune the response to encourage a subliminal sense of well being in the presence of the  hospital mural. Some commonly accepted recommendations for artists of hospital art I discovered are, to avoid use of red for its association with blood, or shades of yellow like that of sepsis. Also limiting  use of sharp angles in the design or thorns that might suggest hypodermic syringes, and even dark subject matter like rocks or stones that might suggest tumors. Recalling my own stresses while walking through hospital corridors, I turned first to matters of color. I used soft, unsaturated color and organic shapes that alternated warm and cool shades. I aimed for a soft ambient images that didn't call attention but transitioned through soft abstraction to suggest the walk. I hoped that the  passer might feel a release of tension as one does when out enjoying nature.

I submitted the finalized set to the design team in 2023 to be  professionally scanned and printed, and then  as there were apparently delays in the completion of the new building quite honestly, forgot about them. It was a surprise to learn two years later that the mural had been installed and so I  recently made a quick visit to see it.

I  was oddly bemused  to remember the paintings, but delighted to see how they had indeed welded together in  such a long sweep. 

This is truly my most ambitious scale of work to date. I feel so grateful to have been given the commission and also the opportunity to learn so much about modern techniques and materials that make scanning, printing and installing such ambitious projects possible in this day and age.

 When a  nurse chanced to come by, she spoke to my husband,  commenting how they love the mural and said that it has brought happiness to the area. I was particularly gratified to know this. It pleases me to think of the new mothers and babies, and families, in the hospital that will form impressions of the diversity and beauty of the world as they stroll down this "healing" corridor walk.