Public Art in a Small New York Hospital Detail from mural.
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f you’re President/CEO of Community Hospital at Dobbs Ferry, NY, and your visitors are having trouble finding the cafeteria, you could put a few signs up with arrows pointing the way, tape copies of the menu in the elevators, post an ad on the website or you could engage an artist to create a tromp l’oeil, larger than life mural, which is exactly what Ron Corti did at Community, about an hour North of Manhattan. Mr. Corti, an advocate of a warmer, less hospital-like atmosphere in the facility with a focus on “making our patients, their families and visitors as comfortable as possible,” couldn’t have chosen a more perfect artist for this task than Filomena Sousa whose stated goal in mural painting is to “bring a vision to life with lots of love. Bringing love to people’s lives is my theme. I truly want people to feel calm and relaxed when they see my work, as if they are in Paradise.” Born in Angola, Mena reached Portugal as a civil war refugee at the age of 12. While still in school, Mena was offered a commission to paint a local chapel in Portugal. “It was previously painted by an artist—the theme was the Nativity of Jesus—and since the paint was very old and the artist no longer lived, they asked me to restore the mural. Unsure that I could do the job, I thought about it and decided that if I was asked, it was because God knew I could do it and if He knew that, then I, too, knew I could.” The project was received with great honor and success and when Mena arrived in the USA at the age of 18 the following year, she was asked to muralize the Portuguese church in the city of Yonkers, NY, just north of New York City. Another successful project resulted and Mena has been painting murals ever since. 64 • Fine Art Magazine • Summer 2009
The artist at work, Community Hospital, Dobbs Ferry, NY
“From time to time, I found it a bit difficult to carry on the mural art when I had my children (adults now) who inspire me continually to pursue my talent as God’s great gift. Being a mother again, I decided that painting was going to be part of my motherhood, instead of putting it to the side. We truly use kids as an excuse for not pursuing our dreams. It’s not the kids—it’s us that stop the dream.” Mena’s success in her work is even more inspiring in that she “didn’t have to go to school and major in art.” After dropping out of high school in Portugal she enrolled in an art correspondence course. “There was no teacher physically present but instead I learned from reading books and practice; that I had a will and passion for it also helped.” Mena would send her work in via mail which the instructor would grade from 1-10. “Some of it was 8, but most was 10,” she recalled in a recent interview. “I was determined to be 100% perfect to my satisfaction. Often, I didn’t have the right material, or enough (they would just send one piece of art paper and I would have to work on it without any errors or mistakes), so I couldn’t take a chance to mess it up.” Mena didn’t finish the course as some time during the middle of it she left for the USA. “I did complete a good part of it — pencil drawings, sanguine, colored pencils, crayons, pastels, charcoal and ink. At times, I turned to craft, painting on fabric, decorative china, wine bottles, glasses and so forth. Later on, I became accomplished in acrylics and oil here in the USA by becoming my own teacher
Detail from mural.
Ron Corti, President & CEO with Mena and Ellen Weiner, VP Business Development
and critic. I am still learning and find we all learn about something new everyday. I love art and the freedom that it gives me to express myself, especially on a big scale. The bigger the mural, the better for me. A wall to me it is like chocolate or candy to a child.” While commercial walls are great for the public and the artist, “If it is residential, I always involve the whole family on the project. Sometimes I even have them paint their share on the wall. You hear ‘wow’ after ‘wow’ and ‘How I wish I could paint’ just like I wish I could sing, or play music. This is my God-given talent. Painting murals is freedom and gives me the joy of sharing my work with others. I painted a little girl’s room that she was going to share with her new-coming sister. The mother later told me the new baby always slept with no problem, and loved to look at the walls. I thank God, my kids and friends for the inspiration, time and talent. ” —VICTOR FORBES