Health Care Fine Art

Top Ten Wish List for Art Research

Research into Evidence-based art has given us a few guidelines on how to best select art for the healing environment; but there is a lot we don't know. Here is my suggestion for the ten areas that would benefit from some research:

1. Does original fine art work better than poster art?
2. Does the size of the artwork matter?
3. How does Black & White compare to Color in effectiveness?
4. Do images showing local habitat work better than exotic habitats?
5. Do images of real (wild) nature work better than gardens or parks?
6. Is the ideal art for use in public spaces of hospitals the same as or different than the art used in patient rooms?
7. Is the art that is best for patients also the best for staff and family?
8. Do prints on canvas (with no glazing) work better than prints on paper behind glass?
9. Does art work illuminated with spots work better than art that just uses ambient light?
10. Do patients who are connoisseurs of art have different needs? Are their responses to art similar to others when then are sick or is it safe for them to have abstract art?

If you have any other suggestions for topics you would like to see researched,  please email them to me or leave them as a comment.

Note:
I am referring here to two-dimensional art only. I am assuming that an experienced healthcare art consultant or interior designer would be responsible for selecting the images.

What's wrong with beautiful Nature?

Henry Wessel, Vista del Mar, 1995, Gelatin silver print, ed. of 12

The November issue of "Art In America" showed up today. Instead of just skimming for visual stimulation, this time I read an article: "Behind the Wheel with Henry Wessel" by Melissa Feldman. 

The article explained how in the 1970s Wessel was influential in the shift in photography away from the traditional "beatific scenes of untainted nature, in the manner of Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, to casual or clinical pictures of the landscape including its manmade elements..."

In today's world of Fine Art Photography, the path looking at the banal rather than the majestic and the polluted rather than the immaculate is still being followed; at least at the very high end galleries which serve connoisseurs. One of my closest friends teaches Fine Art Photography at Texas A&M, and he specializes in photographs of Toxic Waste Dumps: click here.

For years it has puzzled me why "high art" would shift so forcefully against all things beautiful. Is this just a transient shift in taste? Why do I enjoy these images?

If you want to learn more, there is some excellent information about Henry Vessel at the Rena Bransten Gallery Website: click here. I have an excellent book on Henry Wessel that accompanied the exhibit earlier this year at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Biophilia - the reason Nature Art Heals

Pickle-Springs_5527

I've just learned a new word: Biophilia.  I came across it when I was going through a stack of old Contract magazines and found an article called "Natural Needs" in the March 2007 issue. It was written by Sofia Galadza.

Sophia defines Biophilia as the study of a human’s inherent tendency to affiliate with the natural environment. She says it could become the new buzzword in green design.

The term is not new, it was introduced and popularized Edward O. Wilson in his book Biophilia published in 1984. In his book Wilson argues that humans have an innate and evolutionarily based affinity for nature.

Roger Ulrich makes an almost identical argument when he explains why nature art is good in healing environments. On page 121 of Putting Patients First Ulrich explains why Evolutionary Theory works.

"Cultural explanations have proven inadequate, however, for explaining the mounting scientific evidence that a diversity of cultures and socioeconomic groups exhibits striking agreement in responding positively to nature views. Compared with cultural explanations, evolutionary theory readily accounts for this similarity by proposing that millions of years of evolution have left a genetic mark on modern humans in terms of a predisposition to respond positively to nature settings that fostered well-being and survival."

In other words, views of nature enhance healing because we are programmed genetically to respond positively to these views. Our positive response is one of reduced stress. It is the reduced stress which promotes healing.

Sofia Galadza is Director of Public Relations for  IA Interior Architects (IA).

Don't Watermark Web Images

"Why don't you watermark the images on your website? Most other photographers do."

I've been asked that several times. "Aren't you worried that people will steal your images?"

I don't add a Watermark (like in the above picture) because I think it looks bad, and looks are central to what I want to get across. Not only does the Watermark distract from the image, I think it cheapens the image; it is too commercial.

I like it when people take images from my website. Often they get printed to use in presentations (which might bring me business) or they go in Powerpoint presentations. I smile when I see people have created wallpaper or screen savers from them.

Furthermore, the tiny JPG images on my website can't be sold by others. They are too small; often only 40 or 50 KB in size.  The images that I sell are at least 1,000 times larger than that.

So...
Feel free to take the images from my website to use as you wish!

I'm an Artist and Not a Photographer

Cindy Sherman, Untitled #96, 1981

"You're very different than the other photographers I work with" an Art Consultant from Philadelphia said to me yesterday. I explained that one difference is that I don't consider myself a photographer. I see myself as an artist that happens to use a camera.

What's the difference between Professional Artists and Photographers?
Artists go to Art School
Photographers attend Journalism or Photography School

Artists have studied Art History, Drawing and Painting
Photographers have studied Journalism, Writing, and Studio techniques.

Artists learn how to create an engaging image on a blank canvas
Photographers learn how to tell stories with their pictures

Artists follow their intuition to create bodies of work
Photographers take assignments to go out on shoots

Artists want the final image to be visually successful whatever it takes
Photographers want their work to be an accurate document

Artists create big images that can hang on walls
Photographers create small images that work for layouts in print

Artists tend to be obsessed with content
Photographers tend to be obsessed with craft

Gallery Wrap - Pros and Cons

In the last few years my canvas prints have become much more popular. It is easy to see why. Canvas prints have a lot of advantages over paper prints:

• Canvas is much less expensive to frame than paper
• Canvas prints have no glare since they aren't covered with glass

How to properly frame canvas is a matter of taste.
Many frame shops promote "Gallery Wrap" where the canvas wraps around the sides. Personally that is not my preference. My background is in oil painting. Oil paintings would never be wrapped around the sides. In museums, one would never see an image on canvas wrapped on the sides of the stretcher bars.

My preference is to have the white canvas show on the sides and leave the picture unframed. That is a very contemporary look.

Alternatively, a thin wooden strip can be applied on all sides which makes the print appear more finished.

Why do Frame Shops promote "Gallery Wrap"? I think it is because it is much easier and faster to stretch the canvas if one does not have to precisely align the image to the front. With white edges it is tricky to get the four edges of the image to align exactly with each edge. If a quarter inch of white shows on the front it looks very bad.

Featured Artist: William Neill

“Burnt Trees and Shadows on Snow, Blacktail Plateau” by William Neill.

William Neil writes a column called "On Landscape" that I read every month in Outdoor Photographer.  This month he wrote about how he took 249 images of water reflections recently; I can relate to that.

If you want to find a rich source of artistically captured landscape photographs, check out one of his online galleries: Click here.

For less expensive art (under $30), he has a large collection of posters from Art.com: Click here. If you are on a tight budget and need to get some wonderful art for your hospital or clinic, I think these would be perfect.

He has also started a blog: click here. The blog deals quite a bit with the process of photography, so it may be more interesting to photographers then to those looking to simply find some art.

For more information on William Neil, his website is: www.williamneill.com

HealthCare Art for Dummies

Click picture for larger image

Bottom line : best art for HealthCare:  Stress reducing images.

I'm embarrassed to admit this, but I read books from the "Dummies" series. If I want to just get the basics of something quickly, I've found that the Dummies books do a pretty good job.

I wish they would come out with HealthCare Art for Dummies. Some of the references to learn about the Evidence-based Art are difficult to read. They use a lot of big words that slow me down. What I really want is the bottom-line in plain English.

After reading and re-reading Chapter 7 in Putting Patients First I think I could sum up the the ideas in one sentence: The best art to use in Hospitals is art that reduces stress.

Fall Color Starts

Dogwood-Leaves_0192

I took the dogs for a walk in the South Forty this afternoon. The dogwoods & sassafras are showing some fall color so I would stop every few minutes to take some pictures (including the one above). Sam and Boots ran ahead while I positioned myself to have the sun shining right down on the leaves with me on the opposite side. Back lighting like that makes the leaves glow as if they were stained glass.

The dogwoods & sassafras are minor trees in our forests; they are small and scattered far apart. It is the oaks, hickories and maples that dominate here. In the next two weeks we should be starting to see how much of a show they are going to put on this year.

Everyone has their own theories on why some falls have better colors than others, but I have yet to hear an idea that I buy. It might be true that the balance between the leaf pigments changes; the carotenoids start to dominate as the chlorophylls fade. But why does it happen some years more than others ?

Healthcare Design Podcasts from AIA

The American Institute of Architects (AIA) has 6 audio interviews ("podcasts") about HealthCare Design. These are available online for free by clicking here.

Topics:

• Relationship between Design and Healthcare for Patient Healing
• The Evidence-Based Truth about Private Rooms for the Aging
• AIA Home Design Trends Survey: Greater Demand for Accessibility
• Acoustics and Design
• Train, Retain, and Transfer Project Knowledge
• 2007 Nonresidential Construction Market Forecast

These are professionally produced interviews. They don't deal specifically with HealthCare Art, but they do explore many related Design issues. You can put them on your iPod and listen on on your way to work.

It is nice to see them easily available at no cost. Too many organizations charge for services like this.