Artist-in-Residence Program Starts Up at UAMS Orthopaedic & Spine Hospital

By Linda Satter

Aug. 7, 2023 | Hanging out in a surgical waiting room can be a tense or a monotonous experience, depending on why and how long you’re there.

But an artist-in-residence program at The Orthopaedic & Spine Hospital at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) gives patients and their loved ones something to focus on besides their anxiety, while simultaneously providing new opportunities for local artists.

“I believe art is good for the soul and puts one in a ‘good place.’ This good place is conducive to healing,” said Lowry Barnes, M.D., an art enthusiast who chairs the UAMS College of Medicine’s Department of Orthopaedic Surgery and who led the push for construction of the state-of-the-art surgical hospital that opened June 1.

Shelley Gentry was the first artist to take up residency in the second-floor surgical waiting room July 10 — the first day that surgeries were performed at the hospital. Five days later, as she prepared to take her acrylic paints and canvases back to her home studio and her Little Rock art gallery that she shares with 21 other artists, she said it had been a positive experience.

“It’s fun to talk to people, and I’ve gotten a lot of positive feedback,” she said.

She said Barnes encouraged her to engage passersby in conversation while she worked on her paintings, mostly between about 8 a.m. and 1 pm., when the waiting room was busiest.

Gentry has degrees in art and interior design. She said Barnes first approached her about leading off the program about a year ago while the hospital was under construction. He envisioned a peaceful, creative environment for artists while also providing a stimulating but serene atmosphere for patients, visitors and employees.

On her last day as the first artist-in-residence, Gentry sat on a stool near the entrance to the waiting room, dabbing some finishing touches on a painting featuring swirls of blue that sat perched on an easel in front of her. The makeshift studio was set up in front of a wall of glass overlooking the building’s lobby, serving as a light-filled workspace while attracting visitors from the first floor, including staff members who Gentry said checked in periodically throughout the week to see her progress.

As admirers stopped to watch, Gentry asked what they saw in the painting-in-progress. She smiled as they described soft folds and florals, saying she was trying to create the look of fabric.

Two of her other paintings, propped nearby, featured sparkling glass objects with their shimmering facets and shadows. One, titled Stems, included several wine glasses, while the other, entitled Unstoppable, portrayed an array of twinkling crystal decanter stoppers. All were examples of contemporary realism, a signature style of Gentry’s.

Her work is part of private collections across the United States and has been published in AcrylicWorks 5, The Best of Acrylic Painting. Several of her works are on display at the Art Group Gallery at the Pleasant Ridge Town Center in Little Rock that she manages.

Gentry isn’t the only artist to brighten up the new facility.

UAMS spine surgeon Wayne Bruffett, M.D., shuffles past the mural by medical student Alexa Pearce.Bryan Clifton

As the building’s second artist-in-residence, UAMS medical student Alexa Pearce followed up on her first contribution: a 40-foot-long, 8-foot-tall mural that she recently completed on the first floor, near the north entrance.

The second-year medical student, who was previously an art history major, was tasked with creating something that would emphasize the building’s motto: Where Motion Lives and Service Leads.

“I initially planned to do something very realistic and much more muted, but my dad was actually the one to suggest something more abstract and exciting,” she said, referring to Charles Pearce, M.D., an orthopaedic surgeon and shoulder specialist who works in the building.

The mural, which took about 95 hours over two weeks to complete, includes colorful abstract representations of skeletal figures overlapping against a blue backdrop. Alexa Pearce said she used a technique made popular by billboard painters in the 1960s called “scaling up,” in which a grid is superimposed over a picture, a chalk outline is made on a wall and then the outline is filled in, one square foot at a time, until — in her case — all 320 square feet were painted.

“To me, the mural brings our motto to life in a colorful and fun way,” Charles Pearce said.

In keeping with the building’s motto, Barnes said, “the overall theme for art that is purchased or, we hope, donated to the facility is ‘The Art of Motion.’”

Barnes said he had two more artists lined up to follow Pearce with hopefully, many more to follow.