Children might just look forward to their hospital visits after seeing Dawn Scaltreto’s handiwork.
Down the corridor of the Center for Communication Disorders inside the Children’s Hospital-Boston at Waltham, a burst of color invites kids and their families to view a 3-D mural stretching across the building’s wing.
Paintings that represent every form of communication, from archaic-age innovations to the most recent technology, fill 12 panels that span the formerly stark-white walls.
Kids talking with tin cans; a dad teaching his young child the sign language for “father;” a small boy under the comfort of his “hearing ear dog;” a blonde girl with cochlear impact signing the word “airplane” as one flies overhead; plus images of a cell phone, iPod, Braille and smoke signals. Not one stone of communication was left unturned.
Scaltreto, a 24-year resident of Watertown and a mother of one, said this art project has been of particular importance to her.
“This is my voice when I get to do something like this,” she said. “I know people are scared when they walk into a [doctor’s] office, there is a lot of fear and trepidation with that. I really wanted to help ease that fear.”
At the Center for Communication Disorders, a team of specialists provides services for patients with a wide range of disorders, from hearing loss to autism. For those patients, the mural images bear a likeness to their own faces, and display scenarios similar to their own world.
On one panel, a young boy in a Red Sox cap communicates with a head pointer, a wand commonly used for the physically disabled.
Terrell Clark, the director of the center’s deaf and hard of hearing program, said she witnessed a young patient in the hospital stop and smile when he saw the painting.
The goal of the artwork was so that many of the children would find themselves in the faces colorfully portrayed in each vignette, said Betty Bothereau, an art consultant who worked with Scaltreto on the piece.
“There’s something impactful about telling a story as you walk down the corridor,” she said. “They are engaging by themselves but powerful as a whole.”
The 3-D elements, sticking out like wooden puzzle pieces, invite children to both look and touch.
“We are working to make people feel better,” Bothereau added. “We want children not to just have to be here, but want to be here.”
Scaltreto and her team began making the panel installations in November. A lot of research and firsthand knowledge embodying the most accurate images was put into the project, said Scaltreto, who worked out of her studio inside Watertown’s Arsenal Center for the Arts.
Using acrylic paints, she first sketched out her work on foam material and tracing paper, and got her color scheme from a collection of postage stamps. Designing faces that were more “storybook” than stereotypical was most important for the hospital. Many of the center’s staff aided Scaltreto in creating the most accurate depiction of their everyday patients and situations.
Dr. Howard Shane, director of the Center for Communication Disorders, developed the initial idea for the mural.
“She did a great job in capturing it,” said Shane. “There’s so much in the ways of communication. It’s all here.”
John Costello, a speech pathologist at the hospital and the director for the augmentative communication program, said the images have shed a positive light for a lot of the families he works with.
“Finding yourself in art is something meaningful to kids and families,” he said.
Being selected to create the mural at the hospital was meaningful to Scaltreto as well. Close to three years ago, the Children’s Hospital moved its outpatient work to Waltham after the building, once known as the Sterling Medical Center, underwent renovation work. Scaltreto said she gave birth to her son on the fifth floor of the old structure 21 years ago.
Scaltreto, an experienced illustrator, said she has taught at the Senior Center in Watertown and surrounding towns, led a mural club at the Watertown Middle School and has another mural hanging inside the Children’s Hospital in Boston.
Seeing her artwork on the walls in Waltham has made this mural one of her favorites to date.
“There’s an appeal to the young and adult crowd,” she said. “It’s really reassuring for parents. This has really been a special opportunity.”
