Lucy Martindale Explores Family Connections in Art
As a retired health worker of forty years, Lucy is heart pierced by the poignancy of these two works of art.
By Paintings in Hospitals
Lucy Martindale
Dr Salman Visiting His Family (2020) by Nick RichardsPaintings in Hospitals
Dr. Salman Visiting his Family by Nick Richards
My heart reaches out to the doctors and nurses and I find myself raging if anyone dares to criticise the people, my people, who have doggedly continued to show up with open hearts and behind innumerable barriers to effective communication. Most of my old colleagues in the field now say, their job is being done though their pleasures in delivering healthcare are somewhere in distant memory.
Small Kindnesses
And yet, the small kindnesses still get done, as if all was a routine day. What I see here are anxious children, afraid for their parents, waiting for their parents, seeing their parents through barriers, sacrifices doctors and nurses make in this time, for their profession. I am filled with gratitude. I always knew it would be done.
Essential (2020) by Lauren Carter-BridgesPaintings in Hospitals
Essential by Lauren Carter-Bridges
This piece struck me as the health worker looks out into her current world and somehow can hold her clinging children well enough whilst knowing what lies ahead of her at work day in and day out.
Human Touch
Will she have enough heart to hold her beloveds well enough and for long enough for this pandemic time not to matter to their well-being, to her own.
The Vegetarians (1962) by Dora HolzhandlerPaintings in Hospitals
The Vegetarians by Dora Holzhandler
Dora’s family mealtime is painted in deep colours that evoke vivid memories. Bowls of food are arranged neatly on the round table, purposefully asymmetrical like the pictures on the wall and the quirky patterned rugs. This home is like a music score where every object plays a single note.
