This is the third in a series of blogs highlighting some of our most unique projects of 2019 and the amazing partner organizations we completed them with! Check out the first post to read from the beginning.

The Project—Graphic Designer Russell Shaw Describes the Process of Creating the Mural:

“Paint Love connected me with Caroline, the artist in residence at CHOA. Caroline had done a brainstorming workshop of sorts with the kids about what sort of characters they wanted to be represented in the mural. The kids were really into this idea of showing animals of all different shapes and sizes playing with each other, and some of the animals were patients who were dealing with some sort of injury or illness. But they were clear: the animals who were recovering should be shown as the animals who were having the most fun of all! We went over an entire list of characters, and I settled on these that are shown: some are just silly like a parrot on a megaphone; some speak to the kids’ goal, like the pig who is dancing around the IV pole. And some are actually hidden meanings for the kids at CHOA, like the flamingo carrying the pup and the raccoon in the red wagon. That’s actually something that happens at the hospital. Older kids (represented by the tall flamingo) help pull around some of the younger kids in little red wagons.

“After settling on the characters, I went to work laying out the mural. The hallway that this is placed on is actually pretty significant. It’s used for intake, so a kid may be coming into this hallway…their first time coming into the hospital at all. So it should feel welcoming. I designed the mural to start almost as if the characters were tapering off of a canvas: the colors and lines fade out at the edge. So when the kid enters, it’s a blank wall, but as they keep going, more color is added and more characters appear, and it develops into a fuller scene as you get closer to the door. All of the characters are designed to be roughly be eye height for at least someone – a few are slightly higher for kids walking, but a few are lower for kids coming in in a wheelchair. After the basic layout and planning was done, illustrating all of the characters was just an absolute blast. It was fun to bring those ideas to life.

“I also designed and built this specifically with the intent of it being painted by kids and volunteers. I created layers of each color, and made the color layers have very defined borders so that they were relatively easily replicable at scale. That way, on site, the volunteers could project the image onto the wall, and outline the borders of each color – and then it becomes just a paint-by-numbers project after that. It kind of helps make it easier for kids or for less artistically-inclined volunteers to more easily dive in and participate.”

The Partner Organization:

Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta serves kids of all ages from the Atlanta area and beyond. From colorful, friendly waiting rooms to equipment that fits patients of all sizes, every detail is designed specifically for kids.

CHOA is one of the largest pediatric clinical care providers in the U.S. and home to one of the top pediatric surgery programs in Georgia. The goal of their Artist in Residence program is to teach children to express themselves in a positive way through art. The Art program provides normalization to kids and distracts them from their pain or any problems they are experiencing at the time of their hospital visit.

CHOA serves children ranging from newborn to young adults (20 years of age). Most patients they work with are patients with chronic illnesses such as diabetes, Cystic Fibrosis, cancer, and cardiac issues. They also work with transplant patients and kids who have experienced some form of trauma. Their patient demographic is multicultural and largely lower to middle income families with limited resources outside of the hospital.

CHOA has been a Paint Love partner since 2016, and Paint Love completed large murals at two CHOA locations in 2019.

Interested in volunteering with Paint Love?

Or, make a donation of $250.00 to fund our next project!

Partner-Project Highlight 3: The Mural at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta