Art in hospitals and their healing effect

Oreal Keal suffered terrible injuries resulting from an automobile accident in which she was involved. Constrained to the orthopedic ward of a hospital, she constantly gazed at the setting sun over the horizon as viewed from her hospital window. At the same time Oreal yielded to the healing power of visual art works within the hospital ward. She found herself drawn to them in such a way that she could almost communicate with them. As was once said by a famous monarch, "it can’t be easy to be healed in a souls concrete box with characterless windows, in hospitable corridors and purely functional wards; the spirit needs healing as well as the body."

Healing and convalescing require more than drugs. They require adequate care, nice hospital staff, a supportive family and sometimes the most unexpected of things. In  the case of Oreal Keal, beautiful paintings neatly placed in her hospital room and around the corridors and halls of the hospital provided comfort and inspiration each time she gazed at the walls around her while lying down in bed or took a walk to strengthen her legs as was advised by her doctor.

In Oreal's own words, before she was admitted to hospital following her accident, paintings meant very little to her. But now, each time she stares at a mixture of two or more colors, her mind is transformed back in time to the days of her stay in hospital. Colors mean a lot to her now and when these colors are organized in paintings or other art works, they communicate a message which can only be understood by staring, looking and contemplating on their beauty.