Ninety-seven-year-old Oshino Okuda (pictured above) regularly attends painting classes at the Rehabilitation Hospital of the Pacific. Although her late husband was an artist, she was never allowed to paint. Her responsibilities included domestic tasks like cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children.
“Art has changed the way I look at things in the world. That change is profound and forever,” said Medeiros. Medeiros was completing a painting that will be sold at the hospital’s fundraiser, “Art from the Heart,” that takes place Wednesday evening in the hospital lobby. More than 500 works of art from patients, former patients and well-established community artists will be displayed and available for purchase. Artwork will range in price from $20 to $2,500. Ikebana arrangements, donated by Ohara School of Ikebana, will also be sold.
The annual fundraiser helps to support the Louis Vuitton Creative Arts Program, which allows patients to find emotional and physical healing through a creative outlet. “We see how the blank canvas becomes a metaphor for their recovery process,” said Tara Sullivan, the hospital’s creative-arts program coordinator. “The intimidation of the unknown can be overwhelming, but one stroke at a time, they begin to paint a new path in life.” (via Nancy Arcayna�in the The Honolulu Star Bulletin)
