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Special Event: Healing Arts Exhibit Reception
In 2001, Hudson Hospital & Clinics and The Phipps Center for the Arts embarked on an innovative collaboration to exhibit, acquire, and commission original work by regional artists. While the health care field has begun to embrace the understanding that a well-designed environment that integrates the visual arts can have a positive impact both on a patient's healing process and on staff morale, the Healing Arts program at Hudson Hospital & Clinics is unique. It is the only one of its kind that involves collaboration between two community-based organizations. At any given time, work by several regional artists is on display in waiting areas, conference rooms, patient and staff corridors, procedure rooms, and patient rooms. Exhibits are rotated every three to four months, offering variety and interest for staff, as well as opportunities for many regional artists to participate. Winter featured artists are Susan Mc Donald and Barbara Bend. McDonald’s vibrant artwork references the ongoing relationship between the natural world and ever encroaching technology. "This new work comes from my deep love of all things wild, and my questions about the tyranny of modern culture. Each painting is an overlay of two worlds. One world is of the mind, geometric ideas and patterns, a world created by human intelligence. The other world is natural, with biologically derived shapes and forms. Each one both hides, and simultaneously reveals, something new about the other. This dialogue between the natural and the human becomes the new subject.
The colors evoke a balancing of attraction and separation, like two magnets. Though the dragonfly wing is often forced farther into the distance, it often sneaks back into the foreground in a mysterious textural presence that dominates the surface from beneath. The encaustic medium allows us to see all the phases of history through the transparent layers." McDonald’s work is complemented by Barbara Bend’s whimsical and mysterious three dimensional figures. Bend reaches into a playful world of personable creatures to speak of warmth and gentle human qualities. Also on view during January and February are works by Gloria Adrian, Teita Amberg, Chuck Avery, Robin Stoller Awend, John Barnier, Bernel Bayliss, James Mulfinger, Chris Meyer, Gregg Rochester, David Sebberson, Linda Staats, and Teresa Zenk These and other regional artists working in a variety of media offer ongoing exhibits at Hudson Hospital & Clinics. The Healing Arts program which is a collaboration between Hudson Hospital & Clinics and The Phipps Center for the Arts presents these exhibits free of charge and open to the public. For more information on the healing arts program or to schedule a tour, please contact Margaret Welshons, Healing Arts Coordinator, at (715) 531-6059, or mwelshons@hudsonhospital.org.
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