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Make-A-Wish Foundation: Zoe’s Wish for UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital Cystic Fibrosis Center
Zoe and I in front of my Artwork
‘What Lies Behind The Facade’
Zoe chose this artwork from artwork submitted by Tom Huck,
Curator of Art at University Hospitals
I was honored to go with my partner Bruce Baumwoll as guests to the ribbon cutting ceremony for renovations to the fifth floor of UH Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital at Case Western University in Cleveland where the Cystic Fibrosis Center is located. For a little background, below is an excerpt from article on Newsnet5.com by Dave Arnold:
CLEVELAND – Zoe Watterson cut the red ribbon on the fifth floor of Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital Tuesday that commemorated the reopening of an area of relaxation and often creativity for young patients and their families situated between two nurse’s stations dedicated to treating cystic fibrosis patients. Zoe almost single-handedly was responsible for part of Rainbow’s fifth floor being renovated to enhance her fellow patient’s life while undergoing treatment. Given a wish by the national Make-A-Wish Foundation of America, Zoe decided during one of her hospital stays that her surroundings were less than inspiring. (click here for full article)
Zoe has been in the care at Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital since she was a baby. She’s now 18 and will be going to college next year. As part of her wish for the renovation, Zoe envisioned a work of art to be located in a feature wall that would greet patients and family at the entrance to the clinic. I was approached by Tom Huck, the curator of art at University Hospitals, to supply images of my artwork that he wanted to include along with other artworks by other artists for a presentation he would make for Zoe to make the selection. Her mother told us that during the presentation, when she saw the artwork titled ‘What Lies Behind The Facade’, she was immediately drawn to it and decided that would be the artwork. When she heard of my story behind the art, “It was the icing on the cake” Zoe’s mother said. It is a high compliment that she chose my art and I am so honored. I could think of no better place for this work to be displayed. I hope it will bring some light and joy to the children and young adults and their families in the years to come as they come for therapy and extended stays.
About the work “What Lies Behind The Facade”:
In the work ‘What Lies Behind The Facade’, rectilinear fragmented shapes of color obscures a pattern of circles. The gaps left over between the shapes remove more of the circles, further obscuring the whole of them. This construct is a metaphor. The gaps reflect that the disabled with disease are often looked at as somehow not whole and what is seen, is the disability and not the person. But we know that we are just as whole as anyone and when anyone gets to know us, through our strength and perseverance, they will see all of us with all the colors filled in.
click to watch Newsnet 5 story broadcast on April 29, 2014
Zoe and her mom looking at Andrew’s Artwork
Zoe’s doctor at Rainbow Babies Children’s Hospital Dr. Laura Milgram
talking about Zoe’s Wish
from left Dr. Laura Milgram – Zoe’s doctor, Zoe,
Sophia Morton – Vice President of Programs at
Make-A-Wish Ohio, Kentucky & Indiana,
Lisa White – Wish Program Manager at Make-A-Wish Ohio
Zoe Watterson was the center of attention during the unveiling of renovations that she asked Make-a-Wish to do on the fifth floor of University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital.
(caption and photo by Barb Galbincea for Cleveland.com)
Zoe Watterson takes on her doctor, Michael Konstan, in an impromptu game of air hockey in the renovated space.
(caption and photo by Barb Galbincea for Cleveland.com)
Zoe Watterson checks out the renovated space on the fifth floor of University Hospitals Rainbow Babies & Children’s Hospital.
(caption and photo by Barb Galbincea for Cleveland.com)
click here to read article
“Westlake teen’s ‘selfless’ wish benefits others at Rainbow”
by Barb Galbincea for Cleveland.com
Mysterium
Opposite Houses – HOUSE THAT WANTS TO FLY & HOUSE HELD CAPTIVE – Finding Freedom Through Architecture
Revisiting my archives, here’s a project I did as a Student of Architecture at Pratt Institute in 1985. They were published in 1988 in The “Pratt Journal of Architecture – Form-Being-Essence” published by Rizzoli.
Click here to see the book on Pratt’s website.
I thought hard about the project my Pratt studio professor Hanford Yang handed me, to design two houses that when completed felt like they belonged on imaginary sites. But I wanted to do more than just that. I wanted the houses to tell a story of why they belonged where they was placed.
I find a kind of freedom in my art that helps me escape pain. As I look back on this project I realize that I was doing the same thing with my architecture. The curvature of my spine in my twenties caused many episodes of pain. The conception of these houses, about the desire to escape gravity, to fly, to be free with HOUSE THAT WANTS TO FLY, and the reality of not being able to escape gravity, being trapped, with HOUSE HELD CAPTIVE was the story I was telling and a metaphor for the human condition. But perhaps subliminally, it was a metaphor for my deformed spine, wishing I could escape it. Below are the house’s story.
House That Wants To Fly
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House That Wants to Fly
Along a sheer cliff where the pale between earth and sky is sharply delineated, the house precariously hangs by tenuous cords. Perched with the inflection of motion, it patiently waits to take flight.
The body of the house is dispositioned in a symmetrical arrangement as a pretense of stability. The long staircase descending through the earth, leads to the entry of the house, continues again, and is culminated by a bridge cantilevered out in space. Secondary staircases lead to a wing-like observation deck. This assemblage of parts is a clever trick. They construct a “flying machine” imagery so that flyers overhead may be fooled. However, from a more earthly perspective, the house is a mere building.
Like gravity, freedom is a constant endeavor to be maintained. Never will the house be able to escape this earth binding force, but the essence of its form is the quintessential emotion of freedom: FLYlNG.
Opposite Houses published in the
Pratt Journal of Architecture: Form; Being; Absence
Rizzoli Books 1988
House Held Captive
House Held Captive
The house is a microcosm of an oppressive regime. The composition is a scenario of order and domination.
The house is placed in a sinkhole (the borders of a nation). The sinkhole naturally oppresses in geographic terms. Within this domain is an arrangement of geometry’s. A circular ring places rigorous control over a square, golden rectangle and equilateral triangle, locking them in a static dialogue. Oppression is maintained through this austere order intolerable of change. The geometry’s live among each other in delusive equality but this is not a democratic cohabitation. The SQUARE dominates in size and has the advantage of peaking above and beyond the circle.
With this salient position, it can see the truth while the others are kept in the dark.