You Can See the Tree for the Forest

This is a commission for the neonatal wing of Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. They requested that the artwork have the four seasons, trees, lots of colors, and fit in a 5 x 14 foot niche.

The glass to cover the niche was limited to a four foot width, and so the join lines had to be considered when developing the design. The room decor has 12 hues, around the color wheel. (And there was an extremely tight deadline.)

• Approximately 56" H x 164" W

I decided to design the artwork with five panels rather than four and make them symmetrical but different widths (approximately 2, 3, 4, 3, and 2 feet each). The center summer panel is the most symbolic. The small tree is the neonatal patient, with two joined parent trees around it making a womb-like space, which is echoed by the curve of the trees in spring and fall closest to the summer edges. The large violet tree represents the children’s hospital which has a long and important history. The other trees represent hospital staff. The care for the neonatal patient requires all of these people to work together (which inspired the title). I wanted to make the artwork colorful and fun, but also have an element of contemplation for the families of the neonatal patients.

The “horizon” line is curved and not continuous across the panels. I painted the sky and tree silhouettes for each panel, and some of the foliage. Only the tree fabrics overlap panels, not the sky or ground. Seasons cross over panels toward the center, but not outwards. That is: the tree limbs of the two winter panels continue in the spring and fall panels (however spring/fall do not continue outwards into winter). Spring and fall overlap with the summer panel.

Detail of Winter panel (left)

Note, buds are dimensional

Details of Spring panel

Details of Summer panel

Details of Autumn panel

Detail of Winter panel (right)

The snowflakes are made from iridescent and metallic threads, and of course each one is unique. They are based (with permission) on photographs by Kenneth G. Libbrecht which also appeared on the 2007 season’s US Postal Service snowflake postage stamps.

And here’s a bunch more, waiting to be sewn on after the quilting is finished:

Below is the color pencil sketch for the project.