Posted on: Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Fund-raiser offers chance to buy 'Art From Heart'

Advertiser Staff

Some paint with their mouths. Others create art with devices that help compensate for what strokes, heart attacks, accidents and other traumas have taken away.

The results can be amazing — on canvas and in life.

"We try to give patients the freedom to be creative and to explore," says Reuben Young, art instructor for the REHAB Hospital of the Pacific's Louis Vuitton Creative Arts Program. "You can see a big change in the personality and lives of some of the patients. People who might not have gone out much sometimes develop a real interest in painting, and it motivates them to come here for therapy and instruction."

Several of the best pieces from the art therapy program will be on sale and on display at the hospital's third annual "Art From the Heart" fund-raiser from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday in the hospital lobby, 226 N. Kuakini St. The event also will include a plant sale.

Young, who earned a master's degree in fine arts at the University of Hawai'i, teaches two classes a week with occupational therapist Ellen Matsumoto.

"A lot of what the patients paint is very peaceful — calm, serene scenes," Young said. "We don't see a lot of work that you would consider edgy or scary. We don't inhibit what they do, but a lot of them tend to produce work that is peaceful looking."

The program is open to anyone who receives services from the hospital.

Proceeds from "Art From the Heart" will benefit the hospital's creative arts program and the Thomas Jones Greenhouse.

Art by REHAB patients also can be seen at the Kapi'olani Community College Library through Oct. 15.