Sunday November 15, 2009

Smile and the world smiles with you

By CHIN MUI YOON

Hospitals do not have to be cold and impersonal, rather, they can be turned into quirky, colourful worlds that catch the imagination of young patients to aid their recovery.

TRAGEDIES can sometimes be turned into blessings for others. For British artist Laura Cotton, her life’s turning point came in the Bahamas in 1985 when her beloved elder sister and she were involved in a horrific automobile accident during a holiday there.

Her sister did not survive. Recovering from physical pain and emotional trauma while all alone within the white walls of a foreign hospital profoundly impacted Cotton’s life.

“White is as scary, empty and cold as black is when you’re in a hospital. It’s oppressive. I don’t know why so many hospitals choose white for their walls,” says Cotton, 43, during an interview in Beijing organised by luxury Swiss watch brand Frederique Constant in August. The company had funded a Paint a Smile project at the Beijing Children’s Hospital.

Laura Cotton created the Paint a Smile Foundation to help make hospital stays less depressing.

Cotton returned to Europe where she recovered from the ordeal over several years, but the memory of her stay at the hospital continued to haunt her.

In 2000, she decided to establish the Paint a Smile Foundation in Geneva with the mission of turning cold, impersonal hospital walls into colourful and cheerful worlds that could reduce patient anxiety and aid in their recovery.

“Nobody should be left with the memory of hospitalisation surrounded by bare white walls,” says Cotton.

“No one likes hospitals; the smell, the colour, the machines, the trauma. I know the effect of white walls, they are like a prison. I can’t change my experience but I can make it better for others.”

Paint a Smile Foundation’s pioneering project was when Cotton painted the walls of the Borovlani Hospital for children affected by the Chernobyl nuclear accident in Minsk, Balarus.

“It was an invaluable learning experience on cultural, human and professional levels,” remembers Cotton.

“The hospital was under construction. Workmen were everywhere. There was plenty of dust, the chilly wind blowing in, and there was absolutely no interaction with the children.

“But the difficult yet engaging experience made me want to continue. I was lifted by a wave of colourful energy and only realised a couple of projects later that this is it! This is my life’s mission.”

Walls of joy

In the past, and unfortunately still, in many hospitals around the world, the focus was only on physical recovery without considering a patient’s emotional healing. It’s only in recent years that research has proven the remarkable way that colours can have a therapeutic effect and aid patient recovery, especially among children.

Paint a Smile engages child psychiatrists to help understand what goes on in children’s minds. From a simple mission to transform hospitals, Cotton is now working among autistic children to find ways of reaching into their world with colours that won’t trigger fits, as well as with the elderly in old folks’ homes.

The foundation actively seeks individual and corporate sponsors to support projects of their choosing in hospitals and care homes. Projects depend entirely on funding from sponsors, which can range from ‚25,000 up to ‚400,000 (RM125,700 to RM2.3mil) for an entire hospital, including material and transporting the painters to the site.

Cotton believes the flexibility of choices makes the project appealing.

“Sponsors know exactly where their money goes and they can choose what to sponsor — locations, or which sickness or diseases they want to help with,” she explains.

And most importantly, Cotton usually wins the support of the medical staff immediately.

An especially memorable project was for a French hospital where a sponsor from the Theodora Foundation was also supporting the presence of clowns to cheer the children up.

“But they realised that once the clowns leave, what’s left is the same environment for the children. By adapting the environment, it becomes a support for the children to help lessen the dread of hospitals.”

Paint a Smile has brought barren walls to life across 56 hospitals in 14 countries today, from Europe to Dubai to China.

The artists working their magic.

Paintings of colourful, tumbledown houses remind children of the comfort of homes. Talking animals teach children the correct way to do their physiotherapy while bunnies hold up X-rays to show their ribs. Trees inhabited by animated squirrels and friendly creatures dance across the wards while forests rich with berries are a welcome relief from the scent of medicine. And as children fall asleep they dream of embarking on quirky undersea adventures painted on the walls of their rooms.

There are no replicated paintings, as each hospital is uniquely designed to cater to individual cultural and medical needs. Cotton’s most recent project was at the Beijing Children’s Hospital where the walls were filled with colourful hidden dragons, with the final touch painted by Frederique Constant’s China brand ambassador, the actress Shu Qi.

This was the first of such projects in China. Two painters also visited the Buchang Group Hospital in Xian to prepare an estimation at the hospital’s request.

“We hold detailed discussions with the medical staff prior to designing the walls,” explains Cotton.

“The projects are specifically created to stimulate and to cheer patients up with colour. Every piece of work is researched. At the Paris Children’s Hospital, we worked with the doctors and medical staff to develop a theme of cultures across continents to capture their imagination. We’d ‘travel’ across China, the tropics, India, and onwards to Europe, the Aztec nations and Africa.

“Paint a Smile characters become the children’s friends, who wake up with them each morning.”

A rainbow of cultures

Cotton is especially proud of her multi-cultural team of artists, who apply from all over the world to join the foundation. On board currently are 15 nationalities.

“We select only very gifted professional artists who have to be able to work in a team,” explains Cotton.

A little grasshopper dancing with an African mask at the Rashid Paediatric Therapy Centre in the United Arab Emirates

“(The artists now on board) understand the foundation’s ethics and philosophy. They prove colours have no frontiers. Their nationalities, race, political affiliations and religions are not important.”

The biggest reward is seeing a child’s eyes lighting up with happiness, she says.

“We’ve had mothers hugging us and thanking us for making it easier for their children to stay at the hospitals.”

Paint a Smile has expanded into reaching out to elderly folk and patients suffering from Alzheimer’s disease.

“They need different stimulation,” explains Cotton. “When elderly folk begin to realise they are losing their memories and abilities, they can feel aggressive. Sensitively modified environments can help reduce their stress.

“For example, instead of having room numbers, we paint pictures on the doors so that when they get lost, it’ll be easier to recognise where they are and that will give them a sense of control.

“After all, we can remember visuals and smells up to 70 years old instead of something that happened seven minutes ago.

“I want to make up their memories. I want them to recall snowball fights, birds singing, and the smell of rain and flowers through their surroundings.

“At least in Asia, many families continue living with their ageing parents and grandparents. In Europe, many old folk are left in retirement homes and nurses have no time to stimulate their memories and senses. What accompany the old folk are their walls.”

Even as a child, Cotton has always been sensitive.

“Life is important to me. I feel sad when people around me are sad. In school, I was an average artist. I studied theatre and psychology and I loved dancing, singing and music. Life has put me on a strange track and it’s up to me what I do with it.”

The one hospital Cotton wants to paint is the one she stayed at in the Bahamas. But And until that project comes along, many a barren hospital wall awaits to be brought to life.

For more information visit paintasmile.org.