A Letter from Healing Artist, Jordi Pedrola
"When the Strike at Cancer Foundation asked me to participate in their Healing Arts Program, I was immediately interested in this opportunity to become a giver. Having experienced cancer twice through my mother, I feel close to the daily drama of this illness. After one year of working at this, painting with kids at Children's Memorial Hospital, here is my personal reflection on this arts program.
"For the professional artist, artistic creation is a discipline attached to the "non-rational" side of our brain. For that reason, it is hard to analyze art by rational rules, because artistic language becomes very limited through verbal expression. I'm not schooled in psychology, but I recognize that through art we have a chance to express our internal world. I also know that expression helps to remove pressure, relieve tension, soothe pain, etc. It is my own experience that expression simply makes you feel better.
"With a dramatic situation like cancer, the entire family is affected. Any sign of love, any gesture or small bit of attention can mean everything. This must be extended to friends of cancer patients as well.
"At the Children's Hospital, entertainment is one of the most important offerings these children have during their wait to see the doctor, and the opportunity to express themselves through art provides both diversion and momentary release from the stress of their situation. Sometimes the kids want to paint, and sometimes they don't. But they have the opportunity to choose for themselves, based on what they feel at the moment. They are so lucky to have these options. And there are even some kids who look forward to going to the hospital, because for them the hospital "means" painting!
"The results of what these children produce is spectacular. Children can be amazing with colors & a brush. They have such security in making composition decisions, such efficiency in resolving balance problems, so much capacity for reflecting their own personality. As a professional painter, I confront these problems every day. It makes me realize how important it is for them to express, especially in these dramatic moments of suffering. Because of the natural concentration painting requires, they become distracted from what's going on around them, too busy with composition and color problems to focus on their pain.
"Years ago, at my very first show in Barcelona, a collector who was admiring my work told me a very strange thing: 'You artists should always be suffering, because then you make wonderful art.' I don't totally agree, but the truth is, through art you find some balance in your soul. It just makes you feel better. For many kids, it simply makes them smile. It's become so important for me to help keep the smiling feeling alive for them. For that reason, I take very seriously what they paint, and I try to explain to them why their works are good. I treat them as peers and professionals because, frankly, you can sometimes see more real art in these kids than you see at some of the galleries I've visited. It can make them feel proud and complimented and happy about themselves in a moment of weakness and insecurity. Art gives them the power to reach into their interior, touch their feelings, their personality, their internal world. In art, we don¹t have to care about the prejudices and limitations of our daily lives."
Jordi Pedrola is a painter from Barcelona, Spain, currently living in Chicago. He paints with the oncology patients at Children's Memorial Hospital's Day Hospital and outpatient clinic every Tuesday morning. He also paints regularly with adult cancer patients and their families at Gilda's Club, Chicago. Jordi has exhibited his own work at galleries in Spain, Italy and across the U.S.
