The Art of Solace

Two artists bring a touch of home to the University of Alberta Hospital, offering patients and their families comfort as they deal with pain, grief and anxiety.

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Anyone who has spent time in hospital knows that no matter how kind the staff or magnificent the architecture, it’s just not the same as being at home. The University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton has done more than most health care institutions to create a genial atmosphere with gardens, musicians on the wards, and the McMullen Gallery, designed as a place of refuge. Still, during recurring family emergencies, I recall pacing the hallways and longing for the comforts of home.

It’s a reality that Home Grown, on view at the McMullen until April 22, responds to with sensitivity and skill. Elaine Funnell’s botanical watercolours and Amanda McCavour’s fibre-based installation offer warmth and familiarity to patients and their families. But this is one of the few unifying features between the two bodies of work. The artists, matched by the gallery, have no personal or professional ties. Aside from their shared desire to console the 1,500 or so people who will see the show, their art couldn’t be more different.

McCavour is a Toronto-based, internationally exhibiting artist with a Masters degree in fine arts from Temple University in Philadelphia. Her machine-embroidered works are sewn onto fabric that dissolves in water leaving only delicate threads that she suspends like gossamer cobwebs.

Her installation, Stand In For Home, depicts the nearly life-sized kitchen in one of her former homes. This familiar yet mirage-like work conveys details that resist the passage of time: an African violet sits on the windowsill, while yellow roses bloom perpetually on the wallpaper. Memory becomes tangible in this remarkable work.

The scientifically accurate watercolours by Funnell, a self-taught artist who lives near Edmonton, also offer delicate and meticulously rendered details. Inspired by 18th-century botanical illustrations, images such as the Populus balsamifera Seasons – Balsam Poplar #6 depict various stages in a tree’s life, even the insects that feed on it. Yet Funnell’s scientific bent doesn’t obscure intimacy. Her selections are the familiar plants that surround most rural homes. Other works feature everyday fruit and vegetables painted with microscopic precision that allows the familiar, even the mundane, to be seen anew.

While the juxtaposition of these two bodies of work is stark, this doesn’t diminish the artists’ sensitivity to the gallery’s emotionally charged location: each brings a bit of home to people in distress. Just as the McMullen family hoped when they funded the gallery in 1986, these artists offer solace to patients and family members who often wait for hours in hospital hallways as they deal with pain, anxiety and grief. ■

Home Grown is on view at the McMullen Gallery in Edmonton from March 10 to April 22, 2018.

McMullen Gallery

8440 112 St, University of Alberta Hospital, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2B7

780-407-7152

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