The Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Hematology Service’s Making A Mark presents the creative expressions of thoughts and emotions of children affected by cancer and blood disorders.
In its final days at Texas Children’s Hospital during the week of Oct. 9, 364 pieces of art lined the raised crosswalk.
The exhibit is touring Texas and Virginia, making a final stop June 1, 2010 at William P. Hobby Airport.
Themes of hope, self-discovery and optimism cross language barriers and cultures, as the collection includes work by children from seven countries: the U.S., Brazil, Peru, Italy, Panama, Poland and Uganda.
‘There is a lot of joy involved in sharing your skills with children and helping them discover their inner artist,’ Jonatan Lopez, the exhibit’s featured guest artist, said.
Lopez met with children in treatment and their siblings to create pictures of animals that would unite in the three dimensional ‘Totem Pole for the Animal Kingdom.’
‘Asking the kids to draw their favorite animal meant asking them to connect with nature and to unleash their imagination by means of artistic expression,’ Lopez said.
The children’s enthusiasm and imagination flows freely in spite of their circumstances.
‘Leukemia stinks but I’m kicking its heinie,’ 7-year-old Emma Woodle of Richmond said in a press release.
Woodle’s watercolor ‘Sea Beauty,’ displays an aquatic scene of a smiling frog and sea turtle, a trumpeting seahorse and a dancing jellyfish.
Like Woodle, 3-year-old Candace Simmons of Lufkin shared her passion for the water and frogs that live there in ‘Baby Frog Popping Out of Water.’
Frogs are popular creatures in Making A Mark, possibly because of the concept of metamorphosis and the freedom to hop whenever and wherever they choose.
Self-discovery is also a prominent theme throughout the pieces.
In response to her playful piece, ‘Peace of My Heart!,’ 16-year-old Chazzidy White of Fresno said, ‘This is a piece of my heart, all the joyful things that make me unique, and I am like no other. I’m originally me.’
When asked about her piece, ‘A Turtle’s Life,’ Tiffany Cheyanne Garcia said, ‘I’m learning how to get through life with a blood disorder. We go through many changes. I have learned to make the best of what I have.’
As in Aesop’s tale, the turtle takes little steps toward the finish line and crosses victoriously.
The Texas Children’s Cancer Center and Hematology Service walks alongside children such as Tiffany to encourage them to keep going and to share their journey through art. The art appears to transcend the children’s sickness and helps them find meaning and freedom.
Eighteen-year-old Alejandra Castro depicts her happiness as a rural scene with clouds floating gently across a field with a butterfly resting briefly on a flower in her piece, ‘Find Your Happiness.’
‘When the going gets tough, all you have to do is keep trying,’ Castro said. ‘Somewhere along (in) life, everything will be rewarded.’
Making A Mark echoes the hope and courage of the children who created the pieces during their time in treatment at the center.
‘My little sister Maya is a fighter and will overcome this illness,’ 8-year-old Britney Cid said of her sister, a cancer patient.
‘Keep riding the bus until a cure is discovered,’ 7-year-old Chloe Guidry of Port Arthur said.
The children’s invigorating optimism is what fuels the magic and innovation.
To join in creating hope through the arts by becoming a volunteer, contact Arts In Medicine Coordinator Carol Herron at 832-822-1455.
