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Print Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Michele Goyak, of Brentwood, pauses after adding braces to a monkey in the mural she is painting in the children's waiting area for the emergency room at Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic. Ms. Goyak is donating her time and talent to make the room more child-friendly. |
The tense atmosphere of a hospital, full of worried and tired patients, doesn't seem to be the right setting for creating art. But it is for Michele Goyak.
For her, painting murals in hospitals is a part of the healing process, not just for patients, but also for herself.
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Martha Rial, Post-Gazette Detail of a monkey painted by Michele Goyak in the children's waiting area for the emergency room at Western Psychiatric Institute & Clinic. Click photo for larger image. |
With the theme "Can you find?" her mural is full of animals and plants -- brown monkeys with braces hanging from a tree limb, yellow deer, green frogs, gray elephant, motley parrots, pink flowers and a blue stream. But it takes some serious concentration to find the funny, hidden things such as a toothbrush, a heart made of gold or a wishbone.
It also includes some creative, thoughtful things. For example, one of the monkeys in the mural doesn't have ears, and the list of things to find includes the instruction, "Find the monkey that cannot hear." Children will have to think about it, keeping their minds occupied.
It's a way of "alleviating fear for family members and kids themselves," said Mrs. Goyak.
She has a special motivation to do it. But the experts call it "art therapy."
Nancy D. Rued, program director of creative and expressive arts therapy at Western Psych, said that she always looks for the art side in therapy to help her patients become more relaxed and stable. She was looking for a child-friendly room for children 3 to 12 years old, who were either being evaluated or with someone being evaluated.
"I was looking for something that has a sense of joy, a sense of hope with a little whimsy, charm and humor," she said. "In the hospital, in the stressful environment, in the sadness and tiredness ... patients can smile, can feel interested in enjoying art."
Ms. Rued grasped the same purpose in Mrs. Goyak's mural in the cardiology waiting room at Children's Hospital while she was searching.
"I was walking around the hospital. I turned the corner and in the waiting room, there was a large window. So I looked through. 'Oh!' I shouted out loud. It's a fabulous mural," Ms. Rued recalled, "I looked at it like a kid."
Ten days later, on April 21, Mrs. Goyak came to Western Psych to donate another mural, as she did at Mercy, Jefferson and Children's hospitals.
"It is absolutely fantastic, whimsical, magical! It far exceeds my expectations," said Karen Lewis, the hospital's clinical administrator of the diagnostic evaluation center, when she saw Mrs. Goyak's finished work.
According to hospital president Claudia Roth, staff, patients and family members were all overwhelmed by the mural.
As she walked through the emergency department, she heard people chatter, "Oh, there is a cup! Where is the toothbrush?" It was "very, very interesting," she said.
But Mrs. Goyak's mural has another, deeper meaning.
"Doing this is like healing," she said, tearing up.
About 15 months ago, she suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder. She couldn't sleep or eat. She lost 20 pounds. She declined to discuss what caused her problem.
"It's the hardest thing I have gone through," she said. "It's the big reason why I donated these murals to those hospitals because this work makes me feel so good inside. This is very rewarding for me."
She has never attended an art class. Instead, she draws by instinct, as did her mother, who died when Mrs. Goyak was 7.
Although Mrs. Goyak had painted for almost a decade, she really got her passion for painting after having PTSD.
A nurse at Western Psych, where she was being treated, told her that painting might make her feel better.
"I just found that my art means more to me now than it ever did," Mrs. Goyak said.
She painted her first public mural in the emergency department at Mercy Hospital where she works now as a communications specialist. The painting, which included a helicopter and an ambulance, was her way of saying thanks to her colleagues who let her take many days off for treatment.
Then officials from other hospitals who saw it asked her to paint for them. She did wholeheartedly, and for free.
"When [people] go through some type of devastation in their life, they end up appreciating things more afterward," Mrs. Goyak said.
The same inspiration pushes her to help people in other ways.
In September, after watching the plight of the Hurricane Katrina victims on television, she e-mailed her EMS friends, urging them to make donations. Within 24 hours, many came by and dropped off donated items for her, from spoons and napkins to clothes.
Her family helped her stuff these things into boxes. It added up to 459 boxes, equivalent to 10,000 pounds of supplies -- clothing, hygiene products, diapers and more. She couldn't drive it by truck to New Orleans as she originally intended. So she asked Southwest Airlines to take them to hurricane-struck regions. She got a positive response and the cargo went to the Star of Hope Mission in Houston, which will distribute them.
"I'll do everything I can to help someone else because I was helped so much," said Mrs. Goyak.
About 15,000 people, including approximately 5,000 children and adolescents, who visit Western Psych as patients each year now have a chance to stop and enjoy her mural as did many other kids from the other hospitals where her work appeared.
It was well after midnight before Mrs. Goyak finished her work at the hospital. Despite the long day of painting, she did not seem tired.
"If I get a call from someone now. I'll go to paint for them tomorrow," she said.
That is because it is meaningful therapy not only for many kids, but also for her.
