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Teen art a mood changer for patients

After spending some time in hospital getting surgery as a youngster, a Black Diamond teen is determined to make the experience as sunny as possible for others.
Ceiling Tiles
Oilfields High School Grade 8 student Olivia Patterson paints sunflowers on a ceiling tile for Oilfields Regional Hospital to help brighten the mood for patients and residents.

After spending some time in hospital getting surgery as a youngster, a Black Diamond teen is determined to make the experience as sunny as possible for others.

Olivia Patterson is one of two dozens Oilfields High School students painting ceiling tiles to brighten the mood of residents and visitors at Oilfields General Hospital. She’s painting bright yellow sunflowers with mountains and a cloudy sky in the background, knowing it’s the perfect image to brighten someone’s day when they might otherwise be worried or stressed out.

“I think it would be something nice to look at,” she said. “If somebody is in the hospital and not doing too well it could make them happy.”

Oilfields High School art teacher Pam Pracic tasked her junior high art students to paint ceiling tiles for the Black Diamond hospital as a year-end project.

Students selected colourful and positive images, resulting in an array of cartoon characters, colourful quotes, landscapes and flowers.

“They’re painting whatever brings a feeling of joy and happiness to them,” said Pracic.

The tile-painting project was implemented before Pracic began teaching at Oilfields, but after a few years of inactivity Pracic decided to get it off the ground again.

She plans to involve both junior and senior high students in future years so every ceiling tile in the hospital is painted before she retires.

“It’s a collaboration to showcase student talent, as well as give people who are in the facility something interesting to look at other than a white ceiling,” she said. “This is a chance for the kids to not only brighten someone’s day but to feel a sense of accomplishment and gratitude knowing that their artwork is going to bring joy to someone who really needs it. Hospitals aren’t a fun place to be.”

While the project is hard work and takes up a lot of space, Pracic said it’s worth it.

“The kids are excited to have their work seen by a different type of audience rather than it going up in the school and then going home,” she said. “It’s important for the community to see the talent we have here, but also for them to connect with the community.”

Shelly Scheideman, a registered nurse and care manager at the hospital, said the bright tiles support patients and their families during stressful situations.

They’re strategically placed throughout the building such as in hallways, resident and patient rooms and the laboratory, she said.

“It’s so lovely to be able to look up at the ceiling and see a landscape or flower and wonder who painted the picture,” she said. “Sometimes people use them as a distraction.”

The hospital also has framed student art in the hallway leading to the laboratory and diagnostic imaging – an area that’s well used by patients and staff, said Scheideman.

“People come to the hospital for a variety of reasons and it’s pleasant to be surprised by something beautiful,” she said.

Sitting in the art room alongside her classmates, who are painting landscapes, rainbows, flowers and Donald Duck in the Bahamas, Patterson can’t help but feel a sense of pride and accomplishment.

“I love this project,” she said. “It’s just a lot of freedom. We all got to pick what we were going to draw, something that we’re passionate about.”

The ceiling tiles will be installed in Oilfields General Hospital before the end of June.

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