WINONA, Texas — Twelve Winona High School theater students donated several paintings to UT Health Tyler's pediatrics unit on Wednesday to brighten up young patients' days.
Karyn Gordon, a freshman at Winona High School, said she remembers art on the walls of her pediatrician's office comforted her at a young age. She was honored that her class created the paintings that would be displayed on the hospital walls.
“When I go to the doctor, to this day I enjoy seeing the paintings in the office, so when I found out we were giving our paintings to the hospital, I was like, ‘This is so cool,'" Gordon said.
Theater teacher Jeffrey Clark Stokes had his students work on a project similar to what he did while at Ouachita Baptist University.
Groups of the students began with five pieces of wood and a canvas to end up with a complete 2-foot-by-4-foot painting that would match animated images, which the students had to scale for their large pieces of artwork using a grid system, according to a press release from UT Health East Texas.
“The construction work was exciting and hands-on, but then they stretched the canvas and we got to the part where they had to grid out and start replicating the image in each square,” Stokes said. “Slowly the images started coming together so they were like ‘Oh my gosh. We did this!”
Stokes decided to donate the paintings to the hospital because he was impressed with the students' artwork and wanted to find a way for it to serve the community.
“The kids get to know what it feels like to give back to the community, to know they’ll continually bring joy to these kids who are going through a tough time,” Stokes said.
Robin Davis, clinical manager of pediatrics at UT Health Tyler, said she's excited to see the paintings be a part of the hospital and bring joy to the young patients.
“Having such fun, colorful paintings on the walls really helps brighten the atmosphere and can help our patients feel more at ease during what can be a scary time for them,” Davis said. “Seeing familiar characters such as Snoopy, Pinocchio, and Lilo and Stitch helps bring them comfort.”
Gordon said she hopes the paintings will give patients a feeling that everything is going to be OK.