Journal of Sacred Work

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"Everyone
discusses my art and pretends to understand, as if it were necessary to
understand, when it is simply necessary to love." – Monet

   Claude Monet’s painting, Impression Sunrise (1872) was first exhibited publicly in 1874. Subsequently, it became known by many as the painting that launched the Impressionist Revolution. The very title became the descriptor for countless paintings through which artists shared their impressions. And in doing this, they said, like the great Monet: You don’t need to understand, "it is simply necessary to love."

   Before the impressionists, most artists sought to paint as "realistically" as possible. Along came photography which instantly challenged the painter’s craft. Yet the spirit of art remained. True artists had always appreciated that every depiction is a perception.

   Artists understand that creativity is about how brilliantly we can communicate to each other the indescribable and the sacred.

   The impressionists understood that we don’t see a tree, a pear, a nude or a sunrise the same way. In fact, we all see things so very differently that it’s remarkable anyone could suggest otherwise. During my years as a trial lawyer, I came to understand this as I learned that three witnesses to a crime or an auto accident typically saw three different kinds of things in three different ways….

    The impressionists opened out eyes to so much. They offer invite us to a new freedom. Through appreciating the work of the
impressionists, caregivers an deepen their appreciation for the
viewpoint of patients who see the world through the lens of pain and suffering.

   Imagine the paintings patients would draw for us
if they could. What would those pictures show?

   How would patients portray their caregivers? Would they draw cold-acting nurses with shades of blue? Would they paint themselves in angry and frustrated shades of red?
   And what about their surroundings? Patients in hospitals, hospices and nursing homes often spend hours forced to stare straight up. A rare number of hospitals have been compassionate enough to create artwork on ceilings. But, for most patients stranded on stretchers in long hallways, the images above them are nothing more than fluorescent lights and ceiling tiles.

   Imagine the images we could place before patients eyes if we showed our love for them. We don’t need to understand all the reasons. We just need to ask what Love would want us to do.
   What if prints of Renoir (left) Cezanne and Monet were offered to patients to hang in their rooms, not to mention an array of others artists who might match the personal tastes of a given patient? I initiated an art cart offering this option in the first hospital I led. I tried it again in the next. Patients loved it in both places. But, some staff seemed to find it a nuisance and after I departed; so did the art carts leaving in their place the blank plaster walls and rectangular ceiling tiles that reflect institutions rather than centers of healing.

    How could art help your patients?What could you do to introduce the healing gift of art where you work?

-Erie Chapman