Healing with art

To touch art is to touch the mind and to touch the mind is to touch a life. The ‘healing-art’ movement that was introduced only recently in the emirate, during the holy month of Ramadan believes that art capacitates the power to speak to the soul and can create a positive distraction for ailing patients if integrated in hospitals. Hence, as part of the citywide beautification project signed under the patronage of HH Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, that will be in motion till the next year, will be inviting resident artists to paint vibrant murals on hospital walls and ceilings, across the region.

Artwork by Wilma Burton, healing-art specialist

The idea of incorporating healing-art in hospitals is not a fallacy that has been generated from half-baked research, in fact there has been extensive research directed towards verifying the effect that art can exert on sickly patients. According to a research conducted by authors Roger S Ulrich and Laura Gilpin in 2003, it has been effectively proven that feeling an altered state of mind through art integrated in hospital walls and ceilings is possible. The conclusion of their research was in the favour of using “healing-art” as a positive distraction for suffering patients.

Based on another research conducted by a team at the University of Bari in Italy in 2008 verified a link between exposure to a pleasing environment and pain management which highlighted the wonders that art can elude by simply being part of the surrounding and relieving stress and pain.

The walls of a Children's Hospital in Los Angeles by artist, Dave Muller 

There was also a study conducted between 2009 to 2010 by Upali Nanda, the director of research at American Art Resources that focused on the influence visual art can have on the waiting behavior of people in a hospital’s emergency department and found a decline in out-of-seat behavior, incessant front-desk queries and overall edginess displayed by awaiting patients or their family members. Hence, many hospitals in the west use nature images in the waiting area as a means of creating a calming effect on the minds of people.

Healing-art inspired wall mural in the waiting area of a hospital

Wilma Burton, a Venezuelan healing-art artist based in Abu Dhabi, as well conducted her personal research on the effect of art and the various colors and motifs used in paintings or murals on people during her experience at a US hospital where the walls were painted with vivacious scenery. She remarks, “I was suffering from a medical issue 10 years ago and went through a lot of tests. I remember spending a lot of time in the hospital, which was intimidating. But there was a mural on the ceiling that transported my mind and instead of concentrating on the machines around me; I stared at the painted bougainvillea and sky. It took away a lot of the stress”.

Artwork by Wilma Burton, healing-art specialist

According to Burton using images from nature is the best way to soothe people’s pain and relax their minds, images of things that people can associate with hope and goodness. She mentions painting images of butterflies whose symbolism can be identified with by everyone. Patients going through chemo especially can relate with a butterfly as it transforms from an ugly cocoon into something exceptionally beautiful. Such images can serve as healthy and positive reinforcements.

The art of healing at UCSF Medical Centre at Mission Bay

Burton, who served on the board of the American Cancer Society, also prefers painting a rainbow as a symbol for encouragement during sufferings, and images of a tiger or lion to convey a sign of strength. She sometimes also creates paintings that are more whimsical to appeal to the child within every person.