Moments of Peace Seascapes a welcome sight for children
CENTER TWP — A trio of local artists hope their efforts will help make children's lives easier.
A massive seascape covers the walls of a hallway, and a jungle tree flourishes in the medical exam room of the Butler County Alliance for Children Child Advocacy Center's new location at 101 Mahood Road.
Denna Hays, the executive director of the Alliance for Children, said the art was intended to provide a bit of peace and a needed distraction for children visiting the center.
The Butler County Alliance for Children provides various services to victims of child abuse, including forensic interviews, forensic medical exams and a multidisciplinary investigative team.
Hays said renovations of the new center began in October.
“Throughout that process, I was introduced to Paul Means through Butler County Detective John Hertzog,” Hays said. “John had talked with Paul to see if he would be willing to meet with me and paint a mural within our new location.”
'Moment of peace'
Hays said she gave Means free rein to do whatever he wished, and only asked that he “create a space that would give a moment of peace to the children, families and investigators that would be visiting our center.'Means decided on an underwater seascape.He said, “The mural, when you come into the center, there's a room 20-by-45 feet big.“When you are standing in that room, you see the beginning of the mural. When you exit the room and turn left, you are surrounded by the mural,” Means said.He said children have to walk down that hallway to interview rooms, and the seascape is meant to help mitigate what might be going through their heads at the time.“Instead of the white, sterile walls, you are surrounded by a mural 11 feet high and 35 feet on the longest side and 30 feet on the shortest,” he said. “You really get a sense that you are underwater.“There's a lot of color, most of the background is in different shades of blue. It softens the use of the bright colors,” he said.The bright colors were provided by the fish and other deep-sea creatures painted by fellow artist Diane Smith.“Paul began his project in early November 2020, and throughout the project donated over 530 hours along with his friend, Diane Smith, who donated over 150 hours to the project,” Hays said.“I've known Diane for several years,” Means said. “I'm familiar with her work; just the detailing, what she can do.”Work with him
Smith, who met Means when they both exhibited in a pop-up art gallery in downtown Butler several years ago, said Means called her up and asked her to work with him.“Paul has expertise in large, full-scale murals, and my work is a lot more detailed and close up,” Smith said.“I was doing the individual, detailed fish,” she said. “The mural was very time-consuming. There wasn't enough time for any one person to do it.”She was also hampered by the fact she didn't know what many fish look like, which meant a lot of stopping and looking up reference materials.“It was actually more of an organic process once we got started and Googled the underwater creatures,” Means said. “Some of the images of animals, we used a projector to put it on wall to get size, some we just freehanded.“There were times once we got started where we would think, 'This would good over here and this would look over there,' and then we would fill the spaces in between,” he said.“The whale shark is not most colorful, but its mouth is open and, as you look at this thing, it will morph and change, depending on the perspective,” Means said. “When we finished, I thought that was cool.”Disney characters Nemo and Dory are in the mural, as is Smith's favorite real-life sea creature, a puffer fish.Smith said the sea creatures are drawn to be colorful but accurate.“We want to capture the kids' attention,”she said. “Mostly we want them to feel calm and distract them from whatever it was that caused them to be there in the first place.”
Hays said that was the same effect she wanted for the medical room.“I had the idea of creating a jungle theme to provide a comfortable, distracting environment for those who would receive a forensic medical examination within the room,” she said.Butler artistHays was introduced to Butler artist Jennifer Spryn, by the Alliance's then-intern Vanesa Eberle.“Jennifer visited the center and quickly agreed to help us make the desired environment come to fruition,” Hays said. “Volunteer Tyrone Smith, who helped with the renovation of the center, started the project by building a wooden structure on which Jennifer then designed the tree.”Spryn said she normally paints oil portraits, but the jungle environment she was trying to create called for a 14-foot-tall tree with individual branches stretching across the ceiling.“On the 2-by-2s and 2-by-4s, I attached chicken wire that I covered with a mixture of papier mache, clay and drywall compound,” Spryn said.“I used 11 gallons of drywall compound, two gallons of Elmer's Glue and 22 rolls of toilet paper,” she said.“I painted it (the tree) with acrylic paint to make it look more realistic,” she said. Then she was ready to make the 21 animals that she would hide in niches and the branches of the tree. Again, the idea was to distract young patients from their examination.
Spot the birdSpryn said the tree faced the exam table. Children could be asked to spot the bird or the snake or the hummingbird.“Everything on the tree, including the animals, flowers and leaves, was hand-created by Jennifer, (who) spent over three months and 300 hours on the tree project,” said Hays, who noted that Spryn, Smith and Means donated all their time and the materials used in their art projects.Hays said the renovation of the center was also completed via the work of local volunteers, including community members, missionaries, Slippery Rock University students and Center staff and board members.Lowes also donated a substantial amount of supplies.Means said, “My job is easy. It's done. The people in the center are going to be dealing with it day in and day out trying to sort out that stuff.”
