Living In Las Cruces- Spring/Summer 2008

HEALTHCARE

By Kelly Jameson
Photography by Russell Bamert

You don't have to be an art lover or an art collector to know the calming feelings that a warm spattering of color on canvas can bring. For children, bright colors can inspire, entertain, perplex and can even have the power to heal, which is why a group of physicians and staff at Mountain View Medical Center decided to interject a little nonmedicinal therapy onto the walls of their third-floor pediatric unit. And the results are being applauded by patients of all ages.

"Even adult visitors make it down this way to see it," Stephanie Simpson, a pediatric nurse on the third floor, says of the vibrant walls that wrap the hospital's youngest patients in warmth as they heal. "We've had a lot of positive feedback."

Four artists were commissioned to undertake the project, which spans an entire hallway. Zoe Spiliotis, Jesse Reinhard, Adrian Aguirre and Jean Wilkey, all students pursuing their degrees at New Mexico State University, poured two full weeks of their summer into creating a typical, beautiful day in southern New Mexico. The initial idea belonged to Spiliotis, who then planted the seed inside her colleagues' creative brains to create the finished product.

At first glance down the hallway, a new day dawns on your left, spilling sunshine onto fertile fields boasting flavorful and colorful New Mexico crops. From there, gazers stroll beneath plump hot air balloons, across the foothills of the Organ Mountains, and past several entrances to pueblo-style "homes", which are actually the doorways to patients' rooms. The day ends under a full moon above the crystal white dunes of White Sands National Monument.

"It's definitely brought a smile to the kids' faces," notes Stephanie. "And some of us bigger kids, too."