What makes you happy? This is the question that children try to answer in MOCA’s latest exhibition, Inside the Outline.
The exhibition features personalized silhouettes of children who worked with Art with a Heart in Healthcare, a foundation that brings art sessions to children in the hospital giving them a creative boost. The paintings aren’t your average black silhouettes — each one is filled with paintings that depict the answer to the question “What makes you happy?” Some boast cartoons, food or flowers, some have playful shapes and each one is colorful and unique.
Artists in residence and UNF fine art interns helped bring the silhouettes to life by collaborating with the patients.
“I was able to touch up some of them and some of them I was actually able to paint with the kid so it was really a true collaboration,” said Laura Meier, a former UNF intern turned artist in residence.
As the name indicates, Art with a Heart isn’t just about the art — it’s about the people behind it.
“They’re very sweet people. They don’t treat you that much like a patient. They make sure you’re okay but they treat you like you’re outside in a normal environment, not in a hospital, just drawing,” Robin Price, former patient and featured artist, said about Art with a Heart. “It made me feel better, it made me feel not like a patient.”
“I like how art can slide in there and help just as good as medicine can,” said Korey Cunningham, former UNF intern turned artist in residence. He enjoys working with Art with a Heart because of the difference he can make someone’s life. Patients will request to work with him and proudly display his work on their refrigerator or have it framed.
Art with a Heart is at Wolfson Children’s Hospital seven days a week and Nemours Children’s Clinic five days a week. The creative art sessions help children deal with pain, emotional release and family communication. Children ages five to seventeen can draw, paint or participate in other arts and crafts. If they’re lucky they might even get their work put into a museum.
Inside the Outline will be on display at MOCA until December 6.
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