Health Care Fine Art

Tape Art in Hospitals

We are all taught not to draw on walls as kids, right?

Artist Michael Townsend has found away around that rule: use tape.

Using a low-adhesive Drawing Tape, he has found a way to create temporary, large-scale murals that can be a way to entertain and distract kids in Hospitals.

This is how it is described on their website:

Tape Art has found a home in the health care system. It can empower, envigorate and distract without depleting a patient's energy. Patients are afforded a unique opportunity to actively personalize their living spaces and animate their environment with tape drawings. The process is inclusive and often hands-on, a mini-collaborative effort that engages patients and their family of supporters.

To learn more, visit their website: click here

 

Skyline Design Tour

Yesterday I took an extended tour of the factory and offices at Skyline Design in Chicago.
I was impressed!

Most of you probably know Skyline already, but if you don't, they are the preeminent manufacturer of architectural glass in North America. They specialize in custom carved, painted, and etched architectural glass.

Inside the rather modest red brick exterior, the factory space extends over thousands of square feet. I kept thinking we had seen it all and then we came to yet another basketball-court sized room. Despite the fact that they were very busy with orders, the production floors were clean, well-lit and the air quality was good.

Designers and Architects I have worked with around the United States always tell me the same story about Skyline Design: "They are wonderful to work with" "They have the nicest people and they also make the best glass, by far!"

My impressions echo that. Of the hundred people that work there, they all seemed to be happy. One reason they may be so happy is that there seems to be a culture of creative playfulness that starts with the owner Charlie Rizzo; he has a twinkle in his eye.

The staff was obviously very passionate about their work. You could see that the people working with the glass were proud of their craft. The designers I met approach their job as artists. The sales and management staff share the same creative vision. It was very exciting to sense the energy that was there; creative yet also professional.

If you are ever going to be traveling to Chicago I encourage you to try to arrange a tour.
Their website is www.skydesign.com

Schusterman Clinic Installation Pictures

Prints on canvas, Schusterman Clinic, Tulsa Oklahoma

It's frustrating that I rarely get to see my art installed; the Hospitals and Clinics are scattered too far apart. So I was delighted when I realized that we would be driving right through Tulsa on the way to the HealthCare Design 07 conference. I have a bunch of large canvas prints installed there in the newly built Schusterman Clinic at the University of Oklahoma. I wanted to see how they looked.

The art for this project was specified by Joli Dykstra of the VanStavern Design Group, in Edmond, Oklahoma. She placed several large groupings of canvas prints throughout the three story building.  She emailed me after it was completed "The client loves the art.  I really think it adds much to the clinic."

One unusual aspect of this installation was that the lighting was very good. It is amazing how much difference good lighting can make.

I was pleased to see that Kelly VanOsdol of Framin' Gallery did a meticulous job of stretching and mounting the canvases.

Backlit Panels - Part Three

MedLux GPI with photograph by Joey Fischer

I'm continuing to gather more information on backlit panels. The two previous posts can be found at Part One and Part Two. Recently I've been corresponding with Cindy Tlachac of Everbrite Lighting Technologies.

I asked her to explain how Everbrite Lighting Technologies is different from the competition.

We are the lighting designer and manufacturer; we even manufacture our own circuit boards.  We produce a superior product; our system uses 1-watt LED’s which must be driven at constant current, or in other words regulated current.  By doing this we can assure the LED’s will last their expected life time.  Others use resistors in between the LED’s to regulate the current.  This is not the way 1-watt LED’s should be driven, and by doing this they are increasing the odds of premature failure.

Our lighting installs easily and requires no additional parts, simply plug and play.

We have been in business since 1927, and offer a 3-year warranty on all MedLux™ products.  Others do not design or manufacturer anything - they purchase from someone else, who will the customer go back to if they loose their resource for lighting?

Another major difference is that we also offer large-format light boxes.  Others offer only 2x2 and 2x4 light boxes.  We offer 2x2, 2x4, 3x3, 3x4, and 4x4 which provides the customer with an image that has fewer divisions.  Since customers are spending a lot of money on a beautiful image, they would prefer to have the least amount of interruptions in the image as possible.

For more information:

Cindy Tlachac
Everbrite Lighting Technologies
4969 S. 110th Street
Greenfield, WI  53228
Phone:  (800) 610-6053 / (414) 427-2603
Fax:  (414) 529-7191
E-mail:  ctlachac@everbrite.com
Web:  www.e-l-t.com

Backlit Panels - Part Two

A FedEx truck delivered a sturdy wooden box on Friday. After I unscrewed a side panel I found a very thin lightbox with one of my images installed. You can see me holding the backlit panel in the picture to the left (click on the image to see a bigger picture).

Today I called Tom Kitchell at  International Linear Matrix in Florida to ask him a few questions about the light box he sent me.

How is your lightbox different from others on the market?

Ours is one of the thinnest light boxes available - it is under two inches thick, even when it is double-sided. Also ours is unique in being made and serviced in the USA.

What would a lightbox like the one you sent me cost if a hospital were to buy one?

A 2 x 3-foot lightbox like the one we sent you retails for $480.

How long do the tubes last before they have to be changed?

The fluorescent bulbs are rated for 20,000 hours. That is 2.5 years of continuous use. We use standard T4 Flourescent Bulbs which are standard; very easy to find and easy to replace.

Do you typically supply the printed image to go in the lightbox, or do your customers tend to do that locally?

We can go either way. The images we print are done a Kodak N-CAD printer using Kodak Premium Backlit film that is 7 mils thick.

Is there anything else you would like to say?

Because our boxes are made here at our factory in Florida, we can give very quick turn around times, typically 7-10 days. All of our orders are custom. We can make a lightbox of any size up to 4 x 10-feet.

 

I plan on displaying this lightbox in my booth at the HealthCare Design 07 Conference in Dallas in November.

Part One of the discussion on Backlit panels can be found here.

For more information:
Thomas J. Kitchell
International Linear Matrix
10821 Canal Street
Largo, FL 33777
www.ilmusa.com
800-780-7446 x 3016

29-foot wide Mural in Albany

Dog-Leg Fall Panorama 6287

My friend and computer consultant George Kopp is in Albany, NY this week. While he was there he tracked down and photographed a recent installation of mine.  I printed the mural myself on nine canvas panels. It is installed on a curved wall in the entrance to a medical clinic. The overall dimensions are 29-feet wide by 7-feet tall.

The Interior Designer on this project was Amy Pressman of Pressman Design Studio. She was the one who thought this up and made it happen. This was a very complex framing job, but as you can see, the results turned out great thanks to the framer Gary Weitzman.

Is Bigger Better? Illustrated

Big Bluestem 11000

An Interior Designer emailed me this snapshot yesterday after I put up the post "Is Bigger Better?." I think the picture visually answers the question and the answer is:
Yes! Bigger can be better.

This print is exactly 30-feet wide and 11-feet tall. It is just being installed in a cafeteria in Chicago. I created a custom file of Big Bluestem 11000 which was printed by MDC Wallcovering. 

Is Bigger Better?

Fallen Log, Rain, Mt. Erie, Fidalgo Island, 2006 by Brooks Jensen

Today I was listening to a podcast where Brooks Jensen scoffed at the idea of bigger prints. His discussion was triggered by some recent product announcements for cameras with more megapixels and printers that will print even bigger prints (64-inches wide!). He laughs and says "How big is big enough?" then makes a joke about how Americans aways want things bigger.

While it may be true that in general Americans prefer things bigger just on principal (from Hamburgers to Houses) I think he has not looked carefully at the HealthCare market.

For HealthCare and commercial spaces, bigger art is better.  A 2 x 3-foot print looks very small if it is in a large room. An 8 x 10-inch print disappears and would almost never fit. I don't even sell prints that small. Recently I've been sending out prints up to 14-feet long. I recently worked-up a mural 158-feet long (sadly it did not get printed)

Historically, photographers have thought of an 8 x 10-print as a standard big print. That size was dictated by what their enlarger could do. We are in a new era now where digital inkject printing allows prints that are larger and higher in quality that we could have dreamed of a decade ago. In the world of print publishing (where Brooks lives) and in the world of the Internet, big does not matter; but for the rest of us, it does.

To listen to his podcast (3 and a half minutes long), click here.

Brooks is offering the wonderful images above (Fallen Log) sized 7.4x12.9". To see more of his work visit his website: www.brooksjensenarts.com

Note: In addition to being a classic b&W fine art photographer Brooks is also the editor of Lenswork magazine. There was a previous post about Lenswork and Black and White prints on May 15, 2007.

Backlit Panels - Part One

As I  examined a patient last week she said "Why don't you have art on the ceiling so that when I'm laying here I have something to look at other than ceiling tiles?" Good question!

Then yesterday afternoon I got this email from a contractor in New York "One one our clients...is budgeting a renovation of a large indoor atrium that has a solid ceiling center surrounded by skylights." He wanted to know if I could provide him with the art.

Ever since I saw A Sudden Gust of Wind (after Hokusai) 1993 by the artist Jeff Wall I've been interested in backlit panels. This post is simply a brief introduction. I will explore this topic in more detail in later posts.

One thing I learned is that the backlit panels of translucent plastic are called  light lenses. Standard sizes are either 2x2-feet or 2x4-feet. They can be grouped in a grid like a mosaic to create large images and are very easy to install. They are most often used on ceilings, but can also be used in walls.

The fact that the light is transmitted through the light lens creates an effect that is closer to stained glass than looking at conventional art were the light is reflected.

My initial research turned up three businesses that focus on the healthcare industry: 

Art Research Institute, Ltd.
Atlanta, GA
Joey Fischer is the owner and he does all the photography.
Phone: (770) 933-1733
E-mail: joeyf@visualtherapy.com
Web: www.visualtherapy.com

Ceiling Scenes
Holland, MI
Contact: Barb Heldt. This is a specialized backlit panel printing business. They have images you can use in their catalog but they also can work with images from others.
Phone: (616) 928-0817
E-mail: customerservice@ceilingscenes.com
Web: www.ceilingscenes.com


TESS USA, Inc.
Kingwood, TX
Ernesto Machado, owner.  This company specializes in backlit Views to Nature™ for walls and ceilings and has two complete MRI systems.  Images come from 6 photographers.
Phone: (800) 658-8377
E-mail: ernesto@tessusainc.com
Web: www.tessusainc.com

The picture above is one of Joey Fishers installations which is an MRI suite "designed specifically for phobics".

Purple Coneflower Mural

Milli Dunkin just sent me this picture of my Purple Coneflower mural at the Wellstar Blood Donor Center in Georgia. It looks so great I had to show it off. The mural is a close-up of a single bloom of Purple Coneflower. Scientists refer to this plant as Echinacea purpurea. In recent years Echinacea has gained great popularity for it's medicinal properties. Milli wrote me

"It is amazing. All of the end users really like it. I feel like it is going to make quite an impact on the donors."

Milli Dunkin is an Interior Designer with CDH Partners, Inc. in Marietta, Georgia. This mural was printed on Vinyl by MDC Wallcovering.